


The Roles We Play

by Valeada



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Consensual Underage Sex, Drunk Sex, Frottage, Human Gabriel, Jealous Gabriel, M/M, Midsummer Night's Dream, Mutual Pining, Nerd Sam, Self-Hatred, Theatre, Underage Drinking, minor Jessica Moore/Ruby, suspected Sam Winchester/Jessica Moore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-12 22:56:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 45,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3358373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valeada/pseuds/Valeada
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High School Actors!AU. Sam Winchester never thought that he would end up in a play. Ever. But when his senior year comes around Sam tries out for the school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and he ends up getting cast as Oberon. But Gabriel Novak, the guy who plays Puck and the school's resident theatre nerd turns out to be a little different than he expected. Will the two of them be able to get along until the show goes up? Will they be able to perform the play at all? Will Sam and Gabriel be able to come out of this as friends? Or will things change into a little more than that? </p><p>May contain underage sex depending on where you live, but they are of the age of consent where they live.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Roles We Play

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2014 Sabriel Big Bang! The inspiration for this fic came when I saw some pictures of the Globe's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream where Puck and Oberon kissed, and I had a sudden insistent need to see Gabriel play Puck.  
> Many thanks to my Beta readers, why-not-sabriel and alicedeluca, and to aria-lerendeair for help coming up with the title for the fic and for helping me get through the writing process!  
> And extra special thanks to the artist who picked my fic, Buttsp8jr! You can find his fanart here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/3337013

Sam stared tensely at the poster, worrying his lower lip between his teeth. Why the hell was he doing this? It wasn't like he was actually going to end up getting cast. He had no experience, and he couldn't so much as quote someone without sounding like a robot. But it was his senior year, and every year he'd been at this damn school he'd walked past the posters announcing the auditions for whatever play the school was putting on that year. Every time he'd walk right past the posters, deciding that theatre wasn't for him. He was a scholar, he didn't have time to run around on stage in makeup and stupid costumes, making a complete fool of himself. Dean would never let him live it down.

 

But then every year the productions would go up and Sam would feel a twinge of regret in his gut that he hadn't at least gone for it. Those kids up there under those stage lights, they always looked so... happy. Like they were exactly where they wanted to be in that given moment, a feeling that Sam was slowly losing track of. So when he'd heard that they were putting on a production of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ Sam had signed up to audition without really thinking about it.

 

That is how Sam ended up here, standing in front of the drama studio, the monologue he had desperately memorized last minute clutched in his hand, trying to figure out why the hell he had thought this was going to be a good idea in the first place. What if he just got up there and puked? It was a distinct possibility, he'd heard rumours of it happening. What if he got halfway through his piece and suddenly couldn't remember anything at all? Or what if he made it all the way through, but as soon as they thanked him for his time and he was out the door he heard them laughing, asking each other why such an awkward kid with no talent whatsoever had bothered coming out to audition? Sam honestly couldn't decide which outcome would be worse.

 

There was a kid sitting on the stairwell next to the drama room, leaning up against the wall with a sucker in his mouth, who hadn't taken his eyes off of Sam since he'd gotten there. Sam recognized the guy, even though he couldn't remember his name. He'd seen him in a few of the school's plays, always in decent sized roles. He always seemed to fill up whatever room he was in, no matter how large or how small, drawing all the attention to him. Sam could vaguely remember someone talking about the guy as he'd left the theatre once, saying that the kid had stage presence. Sam glanced at him briefly, grateful to see that the guy seemed to finally be looking at something else, but as soon as Sam looked away he felt eyes on him again. He felt a bit like an insect under a microscope; feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand on edge. Alright, this was officially ridiculous.

 

"Is there something wrong?" Sam asked, hoping that he didn't look as nervous as he felt. The guy raised an eyebrow at him, simply staring at him for a moment before pulling the sucker out of his mouth with a wet pop.

 

"Nope." The guy said, the corner of his mouth twitching briefly upwards in the ghost of a smirk. "Just enjoying the view."

 

Sam felt his cheeks burn with a mixture of embarrassment and mortification, and he turned abruptly away from the guy, facing the drama room door again. Christ, were they ever going to call him in?

 

"Don't think I've ever seen you around here before." He heard from behind him and Sam sighed, closing his eyes in irritation. Couldn't the guy take a hint and leave him alone? He could hear the slick sounds of the guy sucking that lollipop, and he felt goosebumps rising on his skin.

 

"First time?" The guy asked, hopping up from his seat on the stairs and walking over until he was standing directly in front of Sam, forcing Sam to look at him. The guy was short, maybe half a foot shorter than Sam, but what he lacked in height he made up for in confidence. His hair was long, still not as long as Sam's, but still long enough to be considered a little out of the ordinary. But it was the eyes that really captured Sam's attention. They were the colour of tarnished gold, or sunlight reflected off a copper roof. Sam's brain struggled for a moment to find an adequate metaphor.

 

"I'm gonna take that as a yes." The guy chuckled, breaking Sam out of his train of thought. "Well first time jitters can be a little freaky, but as long as you don't imagine the director in his underwear you should be fine."

 

Sam frowned at that. "I thought the idea was that you're supposed to imagine they're in their underwear. Make them more vulnerable, or something like that." Sam said, trying to sound as though he hadn't looked it up the night before. Golden Eyes smiled.

 

"Yeah, but trust me. Even the thought of Chuck in his tighty whities is enough to send you running out of the room!" He laughed, putting a hand on Sam's shoulder, and Sam found himself smiling in spite of himself. "Look, just know that whatever you do it won't be as bad as my first go at this."

 

"Oh?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at Golden Eyes nice nickname. "What happened at your first audition?"

 

Golden Eyes shrugged casually at him. "I decided the best way to get over the jitters was to show up drunk." He said simply, and Sam's eyes widened in surprise.

 

"You're kidding."

 

"Nope." Golden Eyes grinned almost proudly. "By the time I made it through my monologue I'd ripped my pants and flirted with one of the curtains."

 

"How exactly did you manage to rip your pants?" Sam chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest in interest.

 

"Ahh, I figured I should show the director that I could do the splits." He explained with another shrug. "The only problem? I was in skinny jeans."

 

Sam broke out into a fit of laughter, shaking his head in dismay. "Oh god." He said in between laughs. "That must have been terrible."

 

“Yeah, I don’t exactly make my smartest decisions when I’m drunk.” Golden Eyes admitted with a shrug.

 

The door to the drama studio opened and a girl walked out, followed closely behind by a middle aged man in a bathrobe.

 

"Uh, I'm looking for a..." The man paused, squinting down at the clip board he was carrying. "Sam Winchester?" He read, looking up from the page and scanning the nearly empty hallway. Sam held up his hand.

 

"Uh, that'd be me." Sam said, and the man's eyes flicked over to him.

 

"Alright, come on in." He said, crossing Sam's name off the list. Sam swallowed thickly, glancing back over at the guy with the golden eyes. The boy smiled at him in return.

 

"Go on, and just remember, don't do the splits and stay far away from the curtains." He grinned, and Sam rolled his eyes in amusement.

 

"Yeah, yeah." He chuckled before heading into the room.

 

\- - - - -

 

Fifteen minutes later Sam walked out of the room, his cheeks slightly flushed with relief. He'd done it, and he'd been nowhere near as bad as he had been worried he would be. Admittedly he had stumbled over one of the lines in the monologue and switched up the order of two of the lines, but he hadn't barfed and he'd made it all the way through. No one had even laughed at him yet. He caught sight of the golden eyed guy, back at his earlier seat on the stairs. The guy looked up when he heard the door open, meeting Sam's eyes as he stood up.

 

"How'd it go, Samsquatch?" Golden Eyes asked.

 

"It's just Sam. And it actually went pretty well." Sam admitted with a smile, feeling slightly out of breath for some reason.

 

"I knew you could do it." Golden Eyes grinned, slapping Sam on the back, who rolled his eyes.

 

"Thanks."

 

"Gabriel!" The man in the bathrobe, called from inside the room.

 

"Coming, Chuck my man!" Gabriel called back to him, jogging towards the door. Just before he entered the room he turned back to Sam, giving him a wink. "See you later, Sammy boy."

 

“It’s Sam!” Sam insisted, crossing his arms over his chest. All of the bite that could have been in his words, however, was taken away by the huge grin on his face. But Gabriel already had his back to him, walking into the drama studio.

 

“If you say so, Sambo!” Gabriel called over his shoulder, giving Sam a little wave. Sam laughed, shaking his head incredulously as he made his way towards his locker.

 

\- - - - -

 

Sam spent the rest of the week trying his best not to think about the auditions, but he just couldn't get them out of his mind. As time went by he just became more and more convinced that he'd done terribly. They were probably convinced that he shouldn’t even be let near a stage, and they wouldn’t even want him doing the lights. Fuck, if only he hadn't messed up his lines. He shouldn't have even bothered going out for the stupid auditions in the first place. The cast list was going to be posted on Friday, and Sam found himself dreading the day more and more the closer it got.

 

Finally Friday morning arrived, and Sam's stomach was in knots. He hadn't been this nervous since his SAT, and he even couldn't bring himself to eat breakfast. Whatever, he probably wouldn’t have been able to keep it down anyways.

 

 

Eventually Sam made it to school, but instead of making a beeline for the drama room like he'd originally figured he'd do, Sam found himself avoiding that entire wing of the school. He already knew he hadn't gotten cast, so he saw no point in seeing the physical evidence of his glaring failure. He managed to drag himself through his morning classes, ignoring the constant buzzing of his phone. They'd all be texts from Charlie anyways, asking him if he got a part. Sam didn't have the guts to let her down just yet, not before he'd come to terms with it himself. Sam sighed as he made his way towards the cafeteria, still feeling too sick to his stomach to eat.

 

He slid onto one of the benches, pulling out his History homework. It wasn't due until next week, but if he wasn't going to eat he might as well get it done. He was just getting into the right head space when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

 

Sam frowned, half turning around in his seat and meeting a pair of golden eyes.

 

"You checked the cast list yet?" Gabriel asked, his tongue darting out to flick across the tip of his lollipop. Sam forced his eyes away from the movement, dragging them back up to meet Gabriel's gaze.

 

"No, I haven't." Sam said curtly, turning away from Gabriel. "And I'm not planning on checking it at all. I already know I didn't get it, what's the point?"

 

Sam heard a scoff from behind him. "Wow, counting yourself out of the game so quickly? That's not the overachiever I've heard so much about." Gabriel chuckled, sliding into the seat next to Sam. “Come on. At least come look at the thing with me.”

 

Sam huffed in annoyance. “Look, I’m not checking it, ok? You go read it yourself if you’re so eager, but leave me out of this.” He hissed, turning to glare at Gabriel, who was propping his head up with one hand while he looked at Sam with an intense, unwavering gaze.

 

“Already looked at it.” Gabriel admitted with a shrug.

 

“Well if you’ve already looked at it then why do you care so much about making me see it too?!” Sam snapped, pushing his homework away from him. Gabriel just rolled his eyes.

 

“Maybe because you’re on it, doofus.” He chuckled. Sam froze, his eyes widening slowly.

 

“Oh.” He said simply, his cheeks reddening in embarrassment.

 

“Right. _Oh_.” Gabriel repeated, rolling his eyes again as he stood up. He grabbed Sam by the wrist, pulling Sam up as well. “Follow me, I’ll prove it.”

 

Sam glanced down at his stuff, and Gabriel sighed.

 

"Fine, get your stuff. But after that we're heading to the drama room ASAP." He insisted, releasing Sam's wrist and crossing his arms over his chest.

 

Sam was still for a moment, not entirely sure whether or not he should just tell Gabriel to fuck off.

 

"Well? I'm waiting." Gabriel huffed, and Sam's instincts made the decision for him. Within a minute he had grabbed his stuff and began to follow Gabriel out of the cafeteria.

 

The two of them wove their way through the hallways, Gabriel artfully dodging the people who brushed past them, while Sam kept his eyes glued to the floor, muttering apologies to everyone who so much as brushed against him. Eventually they made it to the drama room and Gabriel practically pushed Sam in front of the cast list.

 

"See?" He grinned, putting his hands on his hips as Sam's eyes scanned through the list, searching for his name. He still wasn't entirely convinced that Gabriel wasn't just messing with him, but he could put up with this for a minute if it meant that Gabriel would give him some peace afterwards.

 

But clearly fate had it in for him, because there, in black and white, were the words-

 

"Sam Winchester." Sam read aloud. "Playing the part of Oberon, King of the Fairies."

 

"And Gabriel Novak," Gabriel chimed in, pointing at his own name on the list, just below Sam's. "Playing the part of Puck, Oberon’s right hand man. Looks like you and I get to be best buddies for the next few months, huh kiddo?" Gabriel grinned, nudging Sam in the ribs.

 

Sam winced, rubbing his side. "Yeah, looks like we are..." He sighed, shaking his head softly. Well this was going to be interesting, if nothing else. If he managed to survive it, that is.

 

Sam's nerves were beginning to calm down, replaced by a dull hum of excitement. Now that his stomach was slowly unknotting itself he gradually became aware of the fact that that he hadn't eaten since yesterday.

 

As if on cue his stomach growled, causing Gabriel to frown. "You eaten yet, Sam-a-lamb?" Gabriel asked, looking up at Sam.

 

Sam shook his head. "No, not yet. I've been way too nervous to eat." Sam admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, "Figured I'd wait for dinner if I was hungry by then."

 

Gabriel frowned. "Oh hell no, we can't have that." He huffed, grabbing Sam's arm again. "I'm taking you out for lunch." He decided, pulling Sam away from the direction of the classrooms, leading him towards the front door of the school. "Ah, no, no buts." Gabriel insisted, holding up a finger to silence Sam when he was about to protest. "I'm paying, so you've got no reason to turn me down."

 

"You mean aside from my afternoon classes?" Sam scoffed, narrowly avoiding being run into by a freshman as Gabriel literally dragged him down the hallway.

 

"Classes shmasses." Gabriel replied, waving his free hand dismissively. "I'm sure a guy like you's got a near perfect track record. You can afford to skip a few afternoon classes just this once."

 

Sam's mouth curled downwards. "I don't want to miss my classes. In case you hadn't figured it out I actually care about my grades. I can't afford to miss classes now, it's almost the end of term."

 

"Look." Gabriel sighed, coming to a stop in front of the main doors of the school. "You're officially a theatre nerd now, it's time you start acting like one. You and I are going to be getting pretty up close and personal in the next few months, so sue me for wanting to get to know you first."

 

Sam was silent for a few moments, trying to ignore the tugging sensation in his gut that told him to listen to Gabriel.

 

"If it makes you feel any better I'll tell your teachers I hit you over the head with a mallet and kidnapped you. Deal?" Gabriel offered, holding out his hand for Sam's.

 

Sam bit his lip. The offer was surprisingly tempting, he had to admit. Puck and Oberon were pretty close in the play, and Sam could only imagine that it would be easier to act with the guy if he knew him a little better. Gabriel didn't seem totally awful either. Maybe this was the change Sam was looking for. Wasn't that the point of this anyways? To get the chance to experience things he never would have let himself do before he graduated?

 

Sam ran a hand over his face, giving an exasperated sigh. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but fine."

 

Gabriel let out a triumphant whoop, punching his fist in the air, but Sam held up a hand to stop him.

 

"But!" He continued, crossing his arms over his chest. "I can't leave until after next period. I have a math quiz I can't miss."

 

"Fiiiine." Gabriel grumbled, rolling his eyes. "But we're leaving as soon as the bell rings then. Meet me back here with your stuff at the start of next period."

 

Sam sighed, nodding reluctantly as he slung his bag over his shoulder. "See you in a bit." He nodded, and Gabriel grinned at him.

 

"See you, sweet cheeks." Gabriel replied, blowing Sam a kiss. Sam rolled his eyes at Gabriel before turning away, dashing off in the direction of his next class as the sound of the warning bell pierced the hallway.

 

Gabriel sighed, slipping his hands in his pockets as he watch Sam run away. Well this was going to be interesting, to say the least. He hated to see the kid leave, but he loved to watch him go. Damn that kid had a great ass. He pulled another lollipop out of his pocket, pulling off the wrapper and jamming the candy into his mouth before meandering off down the opposite hallway.

 

\- - - - -

 

The sun was beginning to set as Sam slipped into his house, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could. He normally called ahead if he was going to be home later than four, but for once he'd honestly lost track of the time.

 

"Sam?" The voice of his brother shot out from the living room and Sam winced. Damn it.

 

"Coming, Dean!" He called back, toeing his shoes off before jogging into the living room. Dean was sprawled out on the couch, a beer in his hand. Dean glanced up from the TV as Sam entered the room, raising an eyebrow at him.

 

"Well look who decided to come home after all. I was beginning to think you'd skipped out on me." Dean teased, and Sam smiled apologetically.

 

"I'm sorry, it's just that I was out and I lost track of time and-"

 

Dean held up a hand to interrupt him. "It's cool, kid. I'm not pissed. Did get a call from your school though. Said you skipped out on your last couple classes today?"

 

Sam felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment. "Right." He nodded, trying to come up with a good excuse. "I can explain."

 

"Nah, don't bother." Dean shrugged. "Figured I might try to be pissed, give you that whole 'stern talking to' schtick. But you know what? Screw it."

 

Sam's eyes widened in surprise at Dean. He had honestly not expected this. He'd expected a bit of a lecture, some probing questions at the very least about where he'd been. But a complete and total brush off? This was so not Dean.

 

"Uh, alright?" Sam said hesitantly, his brow furrowing with confusion.

 

"Look, I'm not saying I'm not pissed that you didn't call." Dean insisted, holding up his free hand defensively. "But you seem... Happy. And a hell of a lot more relaxed than I've seen you in a long time. So I figure whatever dragged you out of class must have been a good thing."

 

"So you're just going to leave it at that?" Sam asked, raising his eyebrows. "Are you feeling alright Dean?"

 

This time it was Dean's turn to be embarrassed.

 

"Maybe." Dean shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, and Sam could tell that Dean was fighting off a blush. Sam had to fight off a scoff.

 

"Oh? And this maybe include you finally asking out that guy who works at the coffee shop across from the garage?" Sam asked, grinning down at his brother.

 

"Shut your trap." Dean snapped, but the blush that followed answered Sam's question well enough.

 

"I knew it!" Sam laughed, shaking his head. “I told you he would say yes if you’d just grow a pair.”

 

“I said shut your trap!” Dean growled, sitting up and setting down his beer. “And anyways.” He added quietly after a moment. “He’s the one who asked me.”

 

Sam’s eyes widened in surprised as he let out a peal of startled laughter. “Oh this is rich! You know I’m never letting you live this down, right?” He grinned, and Dean’s face turned bright red.

 

“Alright, yeah yeah, have your fun.” Dean grumbled. “Have you had dinner? We might be able to scrape something together from what we’ve got in the fridge…”

 

Sam shook his head. “No, it’s alright, I’m fine. I already ate.” Sam shrugged, adjusting his bag on his shoulder.

 

“You sure?” Dean asked, standing up. “If you’re hungry I can get you something to eat, I’m serious. Hell, maybe we can even order something in.” Dean offered, pulling out his wallet.

 

“Dean.” Sam insisted. “I’m fine, I promised. That’s where I was. I went out to get some food with this guy-”

 

“Woah, hold up.” Dean frowned. “You had a date?”

 

Sam’s cheeks burned. “It wasn’t a date.” Sam insisted, crossing his arms defensively over his chest. “It was just lunch.”

 

“Oh believe me, I’ve been on a lot of those ‘just lunches’.” Dean grumbled. “And I know damn well they can be a hell of a lot more than that.”

 

“Well, this time it wasn’t.” Sam huffed.

 

“So who is this guy? How do you know him?” Dean prodded, leaning against the couch.

 

“His name is Gabriel.” Sam explained. “He’s in the school play. With me.”

 

“Wait, you’re in a play?” Dean frowned. “What the hell is this, ‘surprise your brother with shit he doesn’t know day’?”

 

“The cast list just went up today, ok? I didn’t even think I’d get in when I auditioned. I just did it for the hell of it.” Sam said defensively.

 

“So what, you just figured you wouldn’t bother telling me about it?” Dean asked.

 

“Well, you know now, ok?” Sam snapped. “And Gabriel wanted to take me out to lunch because I hadn’t eaten yet today. He just wanted to get to know me better. We’re in a play, Dean, that sort of stuff is important.”

 

“He wanted to get to know you better?” Dean repeated, his face contorting in disbelief. “Sounds more like he wants in your pants to me.”

 

Sam groaned in exasperation.

 

“Fucking hell Dean! It. Was. Lunch!” He insisted. “It was lunch with a guy I’m going to be in a play with, nothing more. Gabriel’s a good guy who likes theatre and knows what it’s like to have brothers who can’t keep their noses in their own business. He knows I have no idea what I’m doing in this stupid play and he’s willing to help me. I’m not exactly in a situation to be turning friends away, Dean. ” Sam snapped. “We talked. I swear, all we did was talk, and that’s all we’re ever going to do.”

 

Dean stood still for a moment, taking in the sight of Sam, puffed up and angry.

 

“Whatever.” Dean sighed eventually, running a hand over his face as he visibly deflated. “If you say so.”

 

“Thank you.” Sam said curtly. He took a step back from Dean, feeling a little awkward as the tension bled out of the room. He looked away from Dean, fixing his gaze somewhere random. Anywhere but at his brother. “I, uh, I’m going to go upstairs and get my homework done.” Sam decided, nodding to himself. “Yeah.” Sam finished, quickly turning around and dashing upstairs, slipping into his bedroom, and slamming his door shut behind him.

 

Sam let out a deep breath he hadn’t realised he was holding in as he leaned against his door, slowly calming down. He smiled down at the floor for a few moments before finally moving, shrugging his backpack off his shoulders. He pulled out a black folder in his bag, making his way over to his bed and flopping down onto his stomach as he opened the script.

 

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream…” Sam murmured, reading aloud. “Act one, scene one. Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, and Philostrate, with others.”

 

 

\- - - - -

 

“Well go thy way.” Sam said, turning to face the girl standing beside him. “Thou shalt not from this grove till I torment thee for this injury.”

 

“Sam!” Chuck interrupted from his seat near the front of the room. “What have I told you about opening up?”

 

“To, uh, to do it?” Sam smiled hopefully, and Chuck ran a hand tiredly over his face.

 

“Yes. So can you tell me why you have your back to the audience again?” Chuck sighed. Sam frowned, comparing his position to where they had marked out the front of the stage was.

 

“Oh.” Sam said simply, feeling his cheeks burn. Rehearsals had been going on for just over two weeks now, and he was still no better at this than he had been when he’d began. But Christ, there was just so much to remember! Turn out, upstage, downstage, wings, legs, drapes, aprons, blocking, crossovers; Sam just couldn’t keep everything straight. It was like he had to learn another language on top of trying to memorize Elizabethan English.

 

"Look, let's just take it from the top of the scene, ok?" Chuck suggested, forcing a smile and dragging Sam out of his thoughts.

 

"Sounds good." Jessica nodded from beside Sam, taking Sam's arm and leading up to their entrance point. At least Sam had that much going for him, Jessica was an amazing scene partner. Even though she clearly knew what she was doing infinitely more than Sam did she never lost her patience with him.

 

Not to mention the fact that she was kind of gorgeous, so the fact that Jessica was playing the fairy queen Titania and Sam had to play her husband wasn't exactly a hassle.

 

"Alright, well whenever you're ready then." Chuck nodded, leaning against the wall. Sam nodded, clearing his throat before leading Jessica out onto the stage.

 

"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania." He recited, and Jessica sighed, waving her hair dismissively at him as she stalked over to the other side of the stage.

 

"What, jealous Oberon?—Fairies, skip hence. I have forsworn his bed and company." She huffed, fixing her hair primly. The girls playing her fairy servants giggled.

 

Sam made a show of puffing up his chest in anger. "Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?" He said, crossing his arms over his chest, and Chuck groaned.

 

"Hold it!" He called out, covering his face with his script. "Sam. You sound like a kitten trying to roar. And a pissed off kitten might be great in some cases, but not for this part."

 

"I'm sorry!" Sam insisted, running a hand through his hair. "I'm trying, I swear, I just-"

 

"Sam, Oberon is the king of the fairies, and kind of a dick, ok? You’re a sweet kid, I get that. But right now I need you to act like an asshole." Chuck interrupted, scratching at his scraggly scruff before walking over to Sam and Jessica. "Remember. She's supposed to do everything you tell her, and now she's keeping this human boy from you and refusing to have sex with you. Now how does that make you feel?"

 

Sam paused for a moment, not entirely sure what the right answer was here. "Angry?" He said after a minute, sounding entirely unconvinced, and the fairy girls giggled at him. Chuck sighed, running a hand over his face.

 

"Alright, now can we try that again, but with a little more conviction please?" Chuck begged.

 

Sam nodded, taking a deep breath. Sam puffed up his chest, narrowing his eyes at Jessica.

 

"Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?" He said, a little louder than he had the previous time, but even he could tell that he didn't believe what he was saying. Chuck groaned, and Sam almost thought he looked like he was about to cry.

 

"I think it's time I step in." Sam heard from behind him as Gabriel brushed past Sam, putting a hand on Chuck's shoulder. "How about I give Samsquatch here some one-on-one tutoring for a bit?"

 

Chuck nodded, shooting Gabriel a grateful smile. "Thanks. You know when you're not driving me insane you're not a total pain to have around." Chuck admitted, crossing his arms over his chest, and Gabriel grinned at him, giving a mocking little bow.

 

"I am to please, Chuckie." Gabriel winked as he stood up, and Chuck rolled his eyes.

 

"Yeah yeah. Now go on, help Sam. Jessica, we're going to run your scene with Garth. I want him to practice with some donkey ears at least before we find him a full donkey head." Chuck said, and Jessica nodded, glancing over at Garth.

 

"Just as long as he gets rid of the sock puppet this time." Jessica smiled, no bite at all in her words.

 

"Come on kiddo, let's head somewhere a little more quiet." Gabriel said, grabbing Sam's arm and dragging Sam towards the back of the room before Sam had time to say anything.

 

Sam sighed, shaking his head with a smile as he let Gabriel drag him behind a curtain that sectioned off the back corner of the room. There was a spare chair stashed there, and Gabriel flopped down into it, looking up at Sam.

 

"Alright." Gabriel nodded, clapping his hands together. "Now read me your line."

 

"I've already read my line, and we both know I suck." Sam grumbled, tossing his script to Gabriel, who caught it.

 

"Well you're not going to get better if you don't try reading it." Gabriel pointed out, leaning back in the chair.

 

"I'm not going to get better, period!" Sam insisted, shaking his head in exasperation. "We both know the only reason I was cast in the first place was because not enough guys auditioned. We've just got to face it, Gabriel. I suck."

 

"You do sort of suck." Gabriel admitted, and Sam snorted at him.

 

"Wow, thanks. You’re one hell of a pep talker." Sam rolled his eyes, leaning against the wall.

 

"Hey, I tell it like it is." Gabriel shrugged. "And yeah, you kinda suck. But you know what? You don't big time suck. There's still something in there, otherwise I wouldn't bother with you in the first place."

 

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Sam sighed, looking up at the ceiling.

 

"If you want it to." Gabriel chuckled. "Look, Sammy-"

 

"It's Sam."

 

"Whatever." Gabriel said with a wave of his hand. "Look, kiddo. We all kind of suck our first go around. And you know what makes us not suck? What made _me_ not suck?"

 

"I get the feeling you're going to tell me either way." Sam sighed.

 

"See? They told me you were smart." Gabriel grinned. “You suck less by having someone who doesn’t suck help you not suck.”

 

“Well that was a bit of a mouthful.” Sam pointed out, unable to hold back a small smile.

 

“Oh, just wait until you see me do the fun kind of sucking." Gabriel teased with a wink, and Sam groaned.

 

"Fuck, you're horrible!" He laughed, covering his face with his hands, and Gabriel laughed with him.

 

"Nah." Gabriel grinned, waving his hand dismissively. "I think you'd find I'm actually pretty good at it."

 

Sam snorted, shaking his head as he tried to compose himself. He rolled his eyes, meeting Gabriel's gaze as he tried to catch his breath.

 

For a moment the two of them just stared at each other with identical grins on their faces. Neither of them moved, until Sam found himself leaning towards Gabriel slightly, and Gabriel's eyes widened microscopically.

 

"Alright." He said, clearing his throat as he looked away from Sam, hoping that the redness in his cheeks wouldn't be visible in the dim lighting. "Now that the innuendos are out of the way let's get back to work, shall we?"

 

Sam nodded, not entirely sure why he felt a vague twinge of disappointment.

 

"So, what exactly is tripping you up here?" Gabriel asked, standing up and leaning against the wall next to Sam, opening Sam's script up to the scene they had just been working on.

 

"I don't know." Sam admitted, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "It's kind of everything, I guess."

 

"I find that hard to believe." Gabriel snorted. "There has to be something specific."

 

"It's just that there's so much to think about." Sam explained, examining the texture of the fabric of the curtain in front of him. "Stage left, stage right, upstage, downstage, turning out, staying in character, getting the emotions right, memorizing my lines, I mean there's so much to think about. It's hard to keep it all straight."

 

"Well there's your problem, you're thinking too hard." Gabriel smiled, nudging Sam's shoulder playfully with his own. "I can go over theatre vocab with you later on, but you'd pick that up on your own eventually anyways. What you need to do is calm down. Stop stressing so much."

 

"Yeah, because it's just that easy." Sam grumbled, shaking his head.

 

"It is that easy." Gabriel insisted. "Your lines, don't even bother worrying about them right now. You're a smart guy, you'll memorize them no problem. Right now worry about getting the basics done and learning your blocking. Just carry your script around during scenes for now."

 

"And Chuck's going to be ok with that?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

 

“Sam, at this point Chuck’s going to take whatever he can get.” Gabriel chuckled, and Sam’s cheeks burned in embarrassment.

 

“Aw come on, I didn’t mean it like that.” Gabriel sighed. “But I’m serious. Don’t worry about memorizing your lines right now. Hell, I usually end up memorizing mine the day before the show.”

 

“Oh yeah, I’m sure your scene partners love you for that.” Sam rolled his eyes, and Gabriel shrugged.

 

“They deal. At least I’m not worrying about my lines while I’m learning my blocking.” He pointed out.

 

“Blocking, that’s how you move during a scene, right?” Sam clarified, just wanting to make sure.

 

Gabriel nodded.

 

“Yup. But like I said, vocab lesson later. What are you doing when you try and feel the emotions your character feels?” Gabriel asked, crossing his arms over his chest while he looked at Sam.

 

“I, uh, I read somewhere online that it helps if you try and think of a time when you felt the same way while you’re doing the scene. Like if you want to cry think of a time your dog got hit by a car while you say your lines.” Sam explained, rubbing one hand against his leg nervously.

 

“No offense, Sammich,” Gabriel winced “But you really shouldn’t believe all the crap you read on the internet. You know what happens when you do that?”

 

“No idea.”

 

“It pulls you out of the moment.” Gabriel explained. “Look, if your head is so busy thinking Sam this, Sam that, then how do you expect your body to be Oberon?”

 

“It makes sense, I guess…” Sam nodded, rubbing his arm awkwardly.

 

“What you want to do is remember what it feels like to be angry. Does your chest feel tight? How does your head feel? Is it fuzzy, or do things feel sharper? Does your mouth move differently? Do your thoughts come through differently? How about your actions? Are they smaller? Tighter? Or are they bigger and more exaggerated?”

 

Sam nodded as he listened, doing his best to follow along with what Gabriel was saying.

 

“And then you need to let yourself feel like that. Go through body part by body part if you need to, just get used to letting the emotion fill you up like that. And then when you say the line you let yourself remember how that feels, but not as Sam, as Oberon. Don’t drag yourself down with Sam’s memories, focus instead on how anger feels, and you’ll be well on your way.” Gabriel finished with a smile.

 

“Alright…” Sam said hesitantly, although he clearly wasn’t convinced.

 

“There’s also the whole matter of getting into your character’s headspace.” Gabriel continued. “You’ve got to stop thinking as ‘Sam playing Oberon’ and start thinking as Oberon.”

 

“That sounds stupidly cheesy.” Sam scoffed.

 

“Shut up, it works.” Gabriel insisted. “No one’s going to believe you’re Oberon if you don’t think you are. Like, as Puck? When I get into character enough I start getting really pissed that I can’t actually fly. Like it doesn’t make any sense to my brain.”

 

Sam raised his eyebrows in surprise.

 

“Wow, that’s pretty intense.” Sam shook his head softly.

 

“I know it sounds weird, but seriously, it helps." Gabriel chuckled with a shrug. “If you're thinking like your character you move like your character, your lines come out better, everything just seems so much more real. And it's not just about the lines either. If you're acting and you say your lines and then just sort of turn off in between them, you're going to look like crap."

 

"I guess..." Sam frowned.

 

"You're still on stage when your mouth is closed. People are still looking at you, and they still expect to see Oberon. So you've still got to be Oberon, got it?" Gabriel insisted, smacking Sam on the shoulder.

 

"Jeez! Yeah, I get it, I'm Oberon, not Sam acting like Oberon!" He laughed, rubbing the spot that Gabriel had smacked him.

 

“Which brings me to my next point." Gabriel continued, pushing himself off the wall so that he could stand in front of Sam, facing him. "I’ve noticed you stand pretty much the same way when you’re acting as you do when you’re just standing as plain old Sam.”

 

“Well yeah?” Sam frowned “Is that wrong?”

 

“You should stand a different way for every character you ever play.” Gabriel explained. "Come on, stand up."

 

Sam did as he was told, a little awkward about how close Gabriel suddenly was. If he took another step forward or two their chests would be touching.

 

"I want you to try thinking like Oberon for a second." Gabriel said, apparently unfazed by their closeness. Sam raised an eyebrow at him.

 

"Oh come on, I-" Sam rolled his eyes, but Gabriel smacked his shoulder again.

 

"No buts, Winchester! Just do it." Gabriel insisted, crossing his arms over his chest.

 

Sam looked down at Gabriel for a moment, weighing the options over in his head. He could go along with whatever crazy scheme Gabriel had thought up, or he could push past him, go back into the normal part of the room, and see if Jessica wanted to run their scene again.

 

As if he actually had much of a choice.

 

"Fine." Sam sighed, letting his eyes slip shut. He thought about Oberon, how the guy was a stubborn asshole, how he had a set way that he wanted things to go. How he wanted things to go his way, and wouldn't put up with anything else.

 

"Remember, use I. This is you you're talking about, not some random third party." Gabriel's voice broke through his concentration, and Sam groaned in annoyance.

 

"I got it, ok?" He snapped, but did as Gabriel said. I'm stubborn, he thought. I have a way I want things to go, and anyone who gets in the way of what I want had better be prepared. No one gets to push me around. I'm the king of the fairies, I control the seasons, I can have anything I want at the drop of the hat. This human boy that my wife, Titania, is so enamored with is practically a flea compared to me. If she'd just given him to me in the first place I probably would have let the matter slide, but now that she's withholding him from me it's so much more than that. If I don't get that boy then others could start to think that they are allowed to cross me, and then everything would fall to chaos and-

 

"Oh now you're getting it!" Gabriel laughed, and Sam opened his eyes to look down at Gabriel with a frown, feeling himself slowly slip out of his train of thought.

 

"No!" Gabriel insisted, his eyes going wide and his hands flying up to try and get Sam to stop what he was doing. "Hold onto it! Don't let it get away from you!"

 

Sam closed his eyes quickly, taking a deep breath as he tried to stay focused.

 

“There you go.” Gabriel said after a moment, and Sam took a chance at opening his eyes. Gabriel was looking up at him a smug grin plastered on his face as his eyes gleamed.

 

“Your grace.” Gabriel chuckled, giving a small bow. Sam nodded, doing his best to play along. "See? You've even changed how you stand." Gabriel added. "Just give me a sec..."

 

Gabriel quickly dashed around the curtain, coming back hardly a moment later, dragging a full body sized mirror along with him. He leaned it against the wall that they had been leaning against, turning Sam so that he would face the mirror.

 

Sam was unable to stop his eyes from widening in surprise. He did look different. He was standing up straight for once, looking completely at ease with his height. Hell, if anything he looked taller. His face, though a little startled, had taken on a firmer expression, and Sam realized with a start that he looked older. His legs had shifted so that he was standing with his feet a little further apart, and while he wouldn't say he was unrecognizable, Sam definitely wouldn't have looked in that mirror and said he looked like he normally did.

 

"Now hold on to that frame of mind, and I want you to make small changes to the way you're standing. How do you think you should be standing? Start with your feet, then slowly work your way up." Gabriel said from somewhere behind Sam.

 

Sam took a deep breath, looking down at his feet in the mirror. He shifted them until he was standing with his feet hip length apart, facing forward. Not shying away from anything, facing everything head on. Sam dragged his eyes up his legs, bending his knees ever so slightly until he felt a little looser in his stance. Lighter. Like he could move at the blink of an eye. Sam moved his eyes upward to his stomach, sucking it in and up, which in turn straightened his back and expanded his chest. Proud. If Oberon was anything he was proud. He shifted his gaze up to his shoulders, rolling them down and back. He rested his hands on his hips before turning his gaze to his chin, tilting it up and forwards ever so slightly, forcing himself to look down at everything even more than his height normally forced him to. Putting everyone in their place. Sam met his eyes in the mirror, and his mouth nearly falling open as he took in the sight of himself.

 

He looked... Intimidating. Proud. Strong. Sure of himself. Willing to cut down everything and everyone that opposed him.

 

In short he looked like everything Sam wasn't.

 

Sam heard a whistle from beside him.

 

"Gotta say kiddo, the haughty look suits you." Gabriel chuckled, and Sam noticed Gabriel leaning against the wall next to the mirror.

 

"I guess..." Sam shrugged, practically feeling himself deflating as he snapped himself out of the headspace he'd been in before.

 

"Aw come on, don't lose it now!" Gabriel frowned, taking a step towards Sam. "You really had something there."

 

"Yeah?" Sam said hopefully, and Gabriel nodded.

 

"Oh yeah. Trust me." He grinned, and Sam tentatively returned the smile.

 

"Come on, lets see you stand like that again." Gabriel instructed. “Let your breath out slowly. Then take a deep breath, and when you breathe in use that to transition back into your character stance.”

 

Sam turned his gaze back to the mirror, taking a deep breath. He closed his eyes, letting the breath out slowly. When he breathed in he let his chest expand, sinking back into the posture he’d been in before. When Sam opened his eyes, meeting his gaze in the mirror, he did a quick once over of his positioning. He was pretty close to where he'd been before, but still not completely there.

 

Gabriel looked Sam over, pursing his lips.

 

"Nearly there." Gabriel admitted. "But still not quite. Here..."

 

Gabriel took a few steps closer to Sam until he was standing between Sam and the mirror, facing him. He looked Sam up and down, almost a little too intensely for it to be comfortable. Gabriel knelt down in front of Sam, and Sam's eyebrows shot up.

 

"Oh calm down Casanova, I'm not sucking you off behind a curtain in the drama room. That's just skeevy." Gabriel scoffed, and Sam's cheeks burned bright red. "I'd take you into the back of the the auditorium at the very least." He grinned up at Sam, giving a quick wink before looking down at Sam's feet. Sam felt his blush spread down his neck, but he ignored it, trying to figure out what the hell Gabriel was doing.

 

Gabriel put his hands on Sam's feet, spreading them a little further apart, and Sam let out a little squeak. Gabriel looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, and Sam quickly clenched his jaw shut.

 

"Thank you." Gabriel nodded, sliding his hands up Sam's legs. He slowly started adjusting Sam's positioning, slipping him back into the posture he'd been in a minute before. He forced Sam's knees to bend slightly, allowing his hands to slide up and rest on Sam's hips for a moment to tilt Sam's pelvis forward ever so slightly. He gave a small hum of approval before standing up, putting his hands on Sam's stomach.

 

Gabriel slid his hands over Sam's abdomen, and Sam had a niggling feeling in the back of his mind that he was being felt up.

 

"Suck in." Gabriel said, and Sam did as he was told without a second's thought. Gabriel nodded, sliding his hands up Sam's chest until they could rest on Sam's shoulders, pushing them a little further back. Finally he cupped Sam's face in his hands, standing up on his tiptoes. Sam could practically feel Gabriel's breath puffing against his jaw as Gabriel angled Sam's chin down slightly, and there was a brief moment where their eyes locked and Sam was certain that Gabriel was going to kiss him.

 

But then Gabriel looked away and tilted Sam's jaw upwards, taking a step back, and Sam let out a breath he hadn't realized that he'd been holding in.

 

"There." Gabriel said, looking Sam over. "Now just remember that every time you get into character and you should be fine."

 

Sam nodded numbly, staring down at Gabriel a little dumbstruck, not sure what he was supposed to say. Or even what he wanted to say.

 

"I..." Gabriel began, before looking down at the ground, clearing his throat. “I think you’re good to go, Sambo. I think I should go see if Chuck needs me…”

 

Without another word Gabriel brushed past him, and Sam could have sworn he saw a faint blush on Gabriel’s cheeks. He heard the curtain rustle as Gabriel pushed it aside, then only the background noise of the room behind him.

 

What. The Fuck. Just happened.

 

“Sam!”

 

Sam spun around, catching sight of Jessica poking her head out from behind the curtain.

 

“What are you doing back here?” She smiled, shaking her head as she slipped onto his side of the curtain. “You’ve been gone half an hour.”

 

“Sorry, Gabriel was just helping me with some stuff.” Sam explained,returning her smile with a small one of his own. Jessica raised an eyebrow at him.

 

“You mean Gabriel’s been back here with you for half an hour helping you with your ‘stuff’?” She asked, biting her lower lip to hold back a laugh. Sam felt himself blush lightly.

 

“No, he was helping me get into character.” Sam said quickly, only feeling his cheeks get redder.

 

“Sure he was.” Jessica chuckled, patting him on the back.

 

“Why is everyone so convinced we’re dating?” Sam shook his head in exasperation, trying to redirect the conversation. “Even my brother’s convinced there’s something going on.”

 

Jessica shrugged.

 

“Just the way some things come across, I guess.” She replied, walking up at standing next to Sam so that they were both visible in the mirror. She was silent for a moment, pursing her lips as she looked over their reflections.

 

“So.” She said, after a full minute of silence, smiling as she looked over at Sam. “Oberon and Titania, huh?”

 

“Oh, yeah.” Sam laughed, smiling at her briefly before turning to face the mirror again. Deciding to take a chance Sam took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. When he breathed in again he settled back into his Oberon stance, barely holding back a grin when he caught sight of Jessica’s eyes widen in surprise in the mirror.

 

“Wow.” Jessica murmured, and Sam was unable to hold back a grin. Jessica quickly adjusted her posture as well, and Sam came close to groaning because Jessica had managed to work her body in such a way that she looked practically ethereal. It wasn’t fair.

 

But when Sam looked away from Jessica, allowing himself to take in both of their reflections together, he let out a small huff in pleasant surprise. Together, standing side by side, he could almost believe that they were the characters they were supposed to be playing.

 

“Ruby’s going to owe me a twenty.” He heard Jessica murmur from beside him.

 

“Huh?” Sam frowned, and Jessica shook her head, grinning as she slipped out of character.

 

“Oh, it’s nothing.” She shrugged. “Ruby just bet that you were going to give up on this before the show opened. I figured you’d pull through though.”

 

“You did?” Sam said, a little surprised.

 

“Yup.” Jessica nodded. “And if you can stand like that after half an hour with Gabriel I’d be floored if you dropped out.”

 

“Right.” Sam nodded, brushing a strand of hair out of his face as an excuse to hide his smile behind his hand.

 

“Now come on, we should get back to practicing.” Jessica said, heading towards the curtain. Sam nodded, following after her with his script.

 

“Oh, right.” Jessica added, catching sight of Sam’s script. “I wanted to tell you that you don’t have to be memorized yet. Just practice with your script. Less to worry about, right?”

 

“Yeah, Gabriel told me the same thing.” Sam admitted, and Jessica smiled in a way that Sam didn’t altogether understand.

 

“Well Gabriel can be an ass, but the guy knows what he’s doing. We’d all be a little better off if we took his advice sometimes.” Jessica murmured, her smile returning to normal so quickly that Sam almost thought he’d imagined the brief glance he’d gotten of a different one.

 

Sam pushed the curtain open for them to walk through, letting it fall shut behind them.

 

\- - - - -

 

It was incredible, really, how spending hours every day with a guy who was obligated to repeatedly climb you like a tree can help people grow closer. At the start of this whole thing Sam never would have thought he would end up becoming friends with Gabriel. Not that he hadn’t liked the guy, it’s just that Sam was the type of person who appreciated a comfortable silence every once in a while. Silences with Gabriel were never comfortable. If Gabriel was silent for too long it meant that Gabriel was either plotting something, or whatever he’d planned earlier was already underway and he was simply too afraid that he’d start laughing if he opened his mouth.

 

That was another thing. Sam was only just beginning to realize how perfect a casting decision giving Gabriel the role of Puck had been. The character Puck was written as a trickster, yes, but Gabriel blew the whole thing out of the water. In the play Puck is ordered by Oberon to help a group of young adults wandering through the woods sort out their complicated romantic situation, telling Puck where he can find a magic flower that makes people fall in love with the first person they see when they wake up. There are two couples Oberon wants to see end up together, Helena and Demetrius, and Hermia and Lysander. The issue is that Demetrius is interested in Hermia, who is seeing Lysander, leaving poor Helena on her own. But, instead of using the magic flower to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena, Puck makes Lysander fall in love with Helena instead. This, as Gabriel so eloquently put it, “Messes up everyone’s shit.” The original play makes it seem that Puck does this unintentionally, but from the very beginning Gabriel had played it very differently.

 

“Come on, kiddo.” Gabriel had chided him when Sam brought it up. “You don’t think Puck knew exactly what was going on? Believe me, he knew exactly what he was doing.”

 

“So he just messed with them intentionally?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at Gabriel as the two of them lounged on the couch in the corner of the drama room across from Charlie, who was sitting on a chair. No one exactly knew where the couch had come from, it had been there as long as anyone could remember, and it sure as hell wasn’t a new couch. It was ratty, stained, and would probably stink like all hell if the heating in the drama room wasn’t constantly broken. Sam had started wearing two pairs of socks to rehearsals just to keep his feet warm.

 

“Well duh.” Gabriel rolled his eyes. He had his legs spread out across half the couch, resting his feet on the arm. He leaned against Sam’s side, staring up at the ceiling as he articulated what he was saying with his hands. “How else is the poor guy supposed to have any fun?”

 

“Christ, you must drive Oberon up the wall.” Sam sighed in exasperation, feeling a grin creep onto his face in a way that was becoming more and more familiar the more time he spent with Gabriel.

 

“Nah.” Gabriel grinned, tilting his head back further so that he could grin up at Sam. “Oberon might be the king, but he knows that he wouldn’t get anywhere without Puck doing his dirty work.”

 

“You’re probably right.” Sam admitted. “But still, Oberon’s life would be a hell of a lot simpler if Puck would stick to doing his job instead of messing everything up along the way.”

 

Gabriel scoffed at that.

 

“Oh come on, Sammy. Where would the fun be in that?” He teased. “And anyways, sometimes messing everything up is the only way to make sure things work out the way they should in the end.”

 

“Do you even have to act for this role at all?” Sam laughed, shaking his head incredulously. “I swear, Shakespeare had some sort of weird premonition while he was writing this play, saw an image of you, and decided he needed to write you into the play.”

 

“You’re probably right.” Gabriel nodded seriously. “He probably got one look at me and decided I was just too hot to be human.”

 

“Oh right, of course.” Sam snorted, rolling his eyes.

 

“You know.” Sam heard Gabriel say, practically able to hear Gabriel’s smirk. “The Globe put on a production recently where Puck and Oberon made out.”

 

Sam made what he was sure was a stupidly unattractive choking sound, feeling his face go bright red.

 

“O-oh?” He stammered, trying his best to sound as calm as he possibly could. But even he knew that it was unconvincing.

 

“Oh yeah. In the scene right after Puck tells Oberon about making Titania fall in love with a guy with a donkey head.” Gabriel nodded, giving a casual shrug. “I talked to Chuck, he’s decided he wants to put it in our production as well.”

 

Sam glanced over at Gabriel, his mouth falling open. Gabriel met Sam’s gaze and held it for a moment before finally bursting out laughing.

 

“D-damn, Sammy, yo-you should see your f-face!” He laughed, wiping at imaginary tears.

 

“Asshole.” Sam grumbled, feeling his blush deepen.

 

“You know you love me.” Gabriel grinned, taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to stop laughing.

 

“And you nerds call me gay.” Sam heard from a few yards in front of him. His head snapped up, catching sight of Charlie who was sitting on a chair facing the couch. Sam had almost forgotten she was there.

 

“Yeah, because I’m not gay.” Gabriel scoffed as he finally managed to calm down from his laughing fit. “Pansexual Char. I just-”

 

“Genuinely don’t give a shit.” Charlie finished for him, waving her hand dismissively. “Yeah yeah. But what about Sam here? I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen you date anyone. Like ever.”

 

Sam shrugged, feeling a little awkward about the sudden change of topic. “I don’t really know?” Sam admitted. “It’s not something I’ve ever really thought about. I don’t see what the big deal about orientation is anyways. Labels are never 100% accurate.”

 

“A man after my own heart.” Gabriel said with an air of pride, wrapping an arm around Sam’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, Sammoose, I’ll protect you from the nefarious monosexuals.”

 

“Thanks.” Charlie snorted.

 

“Love ya.” Gabriel grinned, blowing Charlie a kiss.

 

“Sammoose?” Sam interjected, raising an eyebrow. “I haven’t heard that one before.”

 

“I just thought it fit you.” Gabriel shrugged, leaning against Sam again. “You’re tall, look like you’re on your way to bulking up, and your hair could be kinda moose coloured I guess.”

 

“I guess.” Sam frowned, not entirely happy with the comparison.

 

“And I know moose have antlers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a little horny every-”

 

“And I think that’s my cue.” Jessica teased, cutting off Gabriel. “Come on Sam, let’s run lines before Gabriel decides to actually jump you.”

 

“Ugh, spoil sport.” Gabriel huffed, letting Jess drag Sam to his feet. Gabriel flopped down onto his back into the spot Sam had recently vacated, crossing his arms behind his head.

 

“I’ll come back in a bit.” Sam promised.

 

“Sure ya will.” Gabriel sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “Don’t worry, kiddo. I know I can’t compete with a nice rack.”

 

Sam’s face burned, and Jessica smacked Gabriel on the top of the head. The other boy hardly flinched.

 

“Calm down, I’m just teasing.” Gabriel promised, meeting Sam’s gaze with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Sam bit his lip, nodding slowly as he felt Jessica’s arm wrap around his.

 

“See you later?” Sam said hesitantly, and Gabriel simply nodded, turning his gaze to the ceiling. Sam nodded again, not entirely sure why his stomach was tying itself in knots as Jessica led him away.

 

\- - - - -

 

Sam was slowly growing more and more certain that Gabriel was secretly a gymnast. There was no way that he didn’t at least have some training, not with the way he jumped around the set. Chuck had brought in some large pillars that he set up in each corner of the stage, promising that he was going to have them painted up to look like trees. Under Gabriel’s suggestion he’d added a few notches into the “trees” that Gabriel could use to climb, and after a hell of a lot of begging and bribing the principal to get it approved Gabriel had tied a thick rope to the network of pipes above the stage that the lights hung from. According to Charlie the pipes were called the grid, and Gabriel would use the rope to swing dramatically across the stage, or sometimes he would simply climb up it, twisting himself around until he’d secured himself tightly, and watch scenes between the other characters. Half the time Sam would show up to rehearsal and head on stage, only to have Gabriel literally fall on him from above. The way that Gabriel manipulated the rope was masterful, and when Sam had asked where he’d learned it from Gabriel had simply shrugged and said “The internet.” After making a shibari joke, of course.

 

Gabriel’s movements always seemed to have a certain degree of effortless fluidity to them. From the cartwheels he would do across the stage, to the way he was unafraid to use every corner of the stage if he felt the need to. Sam had even seen Gabriel go down on his knees and crawl like a cat during one run of a scene, and Gabriel did it with such confidence that it didn’t look weird in the slightest.

 

“That’s the trick to it.” Gabriel had explained. “You can bullshit your way through anything on stage and make it look good. You’ve just got to believe the hell out of whatever you’re doing. If you think that whatever crap you’re pulling out of your ass is the best thing to grace the stage since Bernadette Peters then the audience is going to believe it too. If you’re just going to go up there and look awkward then the audience is going to feel awkward too.”

 

“So fake it until you make it?” Sam had replied with a grin, and Gabriel had laughed.

 

“And they told me you couldn’t be taught.”

 

If there was one thing Sam almost wished Gabriel was less confident in it was how touchy he got. Puck and Oberon always had a lot of contact, it was just the nature of the roles. But Gabriel took things to an entirely different level. Gabriel always seemed to have a hand on Sam, on his arm, his shoulder, his back. Sometimes Gabriel would just run at Sam, hop up, and spent the next portion of the scene listening to whatever Sam was saying while perched on Sam’s back piggy back style.

 

And while in some respects Sam was glad that Gabriel was so comfortable with the physical contact side of their roles, in other ways he almost wished that Gabriel could barely stand to be near him without feeling awkward, because now Sam had a stupidly high standard to live up to. He was barely able to deal with the imposing side of Oberon to begin with. Sam was a gangly seventeen year old boy with a body he hadn’t quite grown into that he was now supposed to be able to masterfully manipulate on stage in front of dozens of people. Not exactly a great recipe for confidence. He could barely be trusted to handle what he was supposed to be doing on stage. So when he was given directions from Chuck to do things like stand behind Gabriel, pull him close, and wrap an arm around Gabriel’s neck in a looser version of a choke hold, or to grab Gabriel’s face in his hands while they talked, or to grab Gabriel’s chin and force him to look a certain way, needless to say he was about five miles away from comfortable. And it was obvious to everyone who watched them rehearse.

 

“Look, it’s not the contact part that’s weird.” Sam had insisted when he tried to explain himself to Gabriel. “Ok, maybe it is a little bit. I’m not exactly used to a lot of contact. But it’s just that the way Chuck wants me to go at it, I mean putting my hands on your face? That’s kind of weird.”

 

“Intimate.” Gabriel corrected, crossing his arms over his chest. “You mean it’s intimate, and it makes you uncomfortable.”

 

“No! Well, I mean, maybe? Kinda?” Sam sighed, running a hand over his face. “Maybe it’s that it seems so forceful. What if I make you turn your head too quickly and I hurt you?”

 

“But you’re not going to hurt me!” Gabriel insisted, losing his patience. “I know when you’re going to turn my head, so I move my head with your hands. This is all basic stuff, Sambo.”

 

“I thought we’d already established that I don’t know the basic stuff!” Sam frowned, refusing to admit how close to a whine his voice had gotten.

 

“And I don’t have time to baby you through this!” Gabriel snapped. “Look, kiddo. You’re going to be told to do stuff that makes you a little uncomfortable, end of story. And you get to be uncomfortable about it. While you’re offstage. But as soon as you get out there you’ve got to suck it up and deal, because that’s the job, and that’s what you signed up for.”

 

“I didn’t-”

 

“I don’t care what you thought you signed up for!” Gabriel said firmly, cutting Sam off. “You’re here now, you agreed to do this. So now you’re going to play your stupid part! Guess what, princess, this isn’t all about you. On that stage you’re part of a cast. You? On your own? You’re so far from important. All of us are. Our job,” Gabriel continued, poking Sam in the chest “Is to do the best we can so that we make each other look good. Now you can bitch and whine and moan all you want, but in the end you’ve got to do your damn job and carry your weight.”

 

Sam was silent, his heart sinking in his chest the longer he listened to Gabriel talk. He bit his lip, and Gabriel seemed to soften at the sight. The shorter boy sighed, running a hand through his hair.

 

“Look, I’m not trying to be a dick.” He continued, a little gentler now. “But you’re a part of this cast, ok? And I know you don’t think you know what you’re doing. But you’re here, and you’re going to do this show. So you need to stop being a wimp, get over whatever it is that’s stopping you from putting your hands on my face, and you’re going to act.”

 

Sam nodded, unable to meet Gabriel’s eyes. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder, giving it a small squeeze.

 

“Hey, I’m not saying you’re on your own here.” Gabriel said, nudging Sam softly so that he would look at him. After a moment Sam gave in, tearing his eyes off the floor. “I’m still helping you through this. But we all depend on each other in plays like this. And this might just be something fun for you, but for some of us here…” Gabriel trailed off for a moment before pulling himself out of whatever train of thought he’d gotten stuck on. “Theatre means a hell of a lot to some of us. And this is our last shot to do this before we graduate. So while I’m really glad you’re in this play, I can’t just sit back and let you give excuses when we’re all working our butts off to put this thing together. It’s just not fair to us.”

 

“Ok.” Sam murmured, offering Gabriel an apologetic smile. “Sorry for being an asshole without realizing it.”

 

“You’re forgiven.” Gabriel grinned up at him. “And I’m sorry for chewing you out like that. But this school kind of spends a lot of time shitting on the drama department. We’ve got no money, and they constantly shove these kids on us who don’t give a shit just because they need service hours to graduate, or they need a class they can pass easily for credits. We’re lucky as hell that we’ve got Chuck to direct the plays, at least he knows what he’s doing. And after a while you get kind of tired of being dragged down by people who won’t even try.”

 

“Hey.” Sam frowned, putting his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “I’m trying, ok? I want this play to go well just as badly as the rest of you. I just have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”

 

“I know, Sammy.” Gabriel sighed sadly, patting Sam’s arm. “Just keep in mind that we’re all doing stuff that makes us feel a little weird. You’ve just got to learn not to care.”

 

“I’ll do my best.” Sam promised with a smile, that Gabriel softly returned.

 

“Come on, let’s go sit on the couch for a bit.” Gabriel suggested, taking hold of Sam’s arm and leading him towards the couch.

 

“What?” Sam frowned, letting Gabriel pull him along. “Shouldn’t we be working?”

 

“Oh, yeah, we’re going to work.” Gabriel promised. “We can run lines or something. But you and I are going to sit here for at least fifteen minutes, and you’re going to keep your hands on my face the entire time, got it?”

 

“My hands? Uh, alright?” Sam shrugged, completely confused as he sat on the couch next to Gabriel.

 

“If you can get comfortable doing it now you’ll be a hell of a lot more comfortable doing it in scenes.” Gabriel shrugged, and Sam nodded in understanding.

 

“Alright, that makes sense I guess…” He said hesitantly, shuffling in his seat on the couch to get a little more comfortable.

 

Gabriel pulled his phone out of his pocket, setting a timer for fifteen minutes.

 

“All set.” He said after a moment, slipping his phone back into his pocket. Gabriel took hold of Sam’s hand, moving it up to rest it on his cheek. Sam held it there, trying his best to keep the awkwardness at bay. Taking a risk, Sam tentatively ran the pad of his thumb over Gabriel’s cheekbone, pulling a happy sigh out of Gabriel.

 

“There you go.”Gabriel grinned, letting his eyes slip shut for a moment. When he opened them again they were glimmering with life.

 

“So, you heard about Chuck and the nurse?”

 

\- - - - -

 

Sam flinched as a flyer was shoved between his face and the book he was reading. He frowned, taking an earbud out of his ear while he looked up to see who was bothering him.

 

Gabriel. Of course it was Gabriel. He shouldn’t be surprised.

 

“Did you see this?!” Gabriel all but shouted, only to have the librarian shush him. “Did you see this?” He tried again at a more appropriate volume as he sat down in the chair next to Sam.

 

“Sorry, it’s a little hard to read when it’s an inch away from my face.” Sam sighed, closing his book and pausing his music. “What exactly are you so desperate for me to see?”

 

“Tisch!” Gabriel grinned, looking like he was barely stopping himself from bouncing in his seat.

 

“Uh, what?” Sam frowned, shuffling through his memory to try and see if he could place what Gabriel was talking about.

 

“Tisch.” Gabriel repeated, raising an eyebrow at Sam. The two of the stared at each other for a moment, neither of them fully understanding the other.

 

“Alright,” Sam finally sighed, breaking the silence. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

“You’re kidding.” Gabriel said,shaking his head incredulously. “Tisch School of the Arts? At NYU?” He tried again, getting only a blank stare from Sam. “Gave the world Idina Menzel, Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Baldwin, and Genevieve Cortese?”

 

“Gabriel I know absolutely nothing about theatre schools. At all.” Sam said with a hint of exasperation. “You’re going to have to spell it out for me.”

 

Gabriel groaned in annoyance, tilting his head back for a moment.

 

“It’s like talking to a brick wall, I swear.”

 

“Alright then, name three fields of law.” Sam retorted, and Gabriel snapped his mouth shut, glaring at Sam.

 

“Touché.” He grumbled.

 

“Thank you.” Sam nodded, only a trace of smugness in his smile. “But if you really want to talk to me about Ti… What was it again?”

 

“Tisch.”

 

“Tisch.” Sam repeated. “If you really want to talk to me about it then I’m not going to stop you. Just don’t bite my head off for not knowing what it is.”

 

“I’ll do my best.” Gabriel nodded, slowly gaining his old excitement back. “So, Tisch. Second most famous theatre school in New York City, after Juilliard that is.”

 

“Great for them.” Sam said, leaning back in his chair. “But what exactly does that have to do with anything?”

 

“Oh nothing.” Gabriel said, trying to sound casual about it when in fact Sam could tell Gabriel was nearly ready to do a backflip. “Only that they’re auditioning here this year!”

 

“Gabriel.” Sam sighed. “We live in Chicago. Chicago’s not exactly a small city, of course they’re going to audition here.”

 

“Shut up.” Gabriel snapped. “This is a really big school, ok? If I can ace my audition I might even have a shot at getting in.”

 

“If Tisch is only second best then why don’t you go to Juilliard?” Sam asked, and Gabriel raised an eyebrow at him skeptically.

 

“Are you kidding? Please, God, tell me he’s kidding.” Gabriel sighed, covering his face with his hand as he shook his head.

 

“What? What did I say?” Sam frowned. “I think I’ve actually heard of that one. If it’s the better school then you should apply there.”

 

“The shit I put up with I swear.” Gabriel groaned. “I can’t just _apply to Juilliard_. Do you know how many drama students Juilliard takes in every year, Sam? Do you?”

 

Sam shook his head.

 

“Eight to ten.” Gabriel said slowly, leaning in so that his face was directly in front of Sam’s. “Eight. To. Ten.”

 

“So?” Sam scoffed. “You’re good, Gabriel. I’ve seen you act, and I’m sure Juilliard would be lucky to have you.”

 

Gabriel let out a huff of annoyance, flopping back in his chair.

 

“Sure I’m good, but I’m not Juilliard good. I’m not top eight in the country good.” Gabriel insisted,shaking his head.

 

“Or top ten.” Sam reminded him. “How are you going to know if you don’t bother trying?”

 

“Sam.” Gabriel frowned, his voice turning firm. “Look, I know you’re trying to be nice and all, and that’s adorably sweet of you.”

 

“I’m not-”

 

“But.” Gabriel interrupted, ploughing on as if Sam hadn’t spoken. “Just accept that I might know a little bit more about this than you, alright? Maybe it’s different with law schools or wherever you think you want to go. But I’ve been trying to get into this stupid world of theatre since I was a kid.”

 

Sam was silent, watching as Gabriel sank back into his chair, not even looking as Sam as he went on.

 

“If you want to get into a good law school you can study your ass off, do everything you can to get 100% in your courseload made entirely out of AP classes, score over 2000 on your SATs, and you could get into the best law school out there. You could be dumb as a post, but if you worked your ass off theoretically you could get into Harvard. But theatre? You’ve got to be born with it.”

 

“And you don’t think you’re born with it?” Sam frowned.

 

“Shut it, Winchester, I’m trying to monologue here.” Gabriel snapped playfully, his tone still light and joking in spite of the subject matter. “As I was saying. If the big guy upstairs doesn’t give you that natural born acting talent then you can go to all the acting classes you want. You can eat, sleep, and breathe Shakespeare. You can learn every technique in every book there is, but if you aren’t born with the right stuff, if you don’t have the natural talent, then you’re never going to make it as an actor.”

 

“Gabriel…”

 

“Look, kiddo. I’m not saying I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not saying I can’t act. Hell, I’m not going to deny that I’m a pretty damn good actor. But I’m not the greatest actor the world has ever seen, and I don’t look like I just jumped out of Sports Illustrated or Playgirl and my parents aren’t up there schmoozing with big name directors three times a week. So no, I’m not going to get into Juilliard.” Gabriel shrugged.

 

“Gabriel, will you just-”

 

“For fuck’s sake, Sammy! Stop looking at me like I’m breaking your heart.” Gabriel laughed, reaching over to ruffle Sam’s hair. Sam flinched out of the way, sliding a little further away from Gabriel in his chair.

 

“Gabriel, you’re the best actor in the school.” Sam frowned. This was ridiculous, why was Gabriel just giving up on himself this easily?

 

“Awe shucks.” Gabriel grinned, fanning himself dramatically. “Flattery will get you everywhere. But every school in the country has a guy just like me, and he’s got someone sitting next to him telling him that he’s the best actor in his school. And he wants it just as bad as me, and he’s worked just as hard as me, and we’re all going to want to get into the same places. It all depends on who’s luckier, and who’s just that tiny bit better than the other.” Gabriel let out a small sigh, stretching his arm out to rest it along the back of Sam’s chair.

 

“Someday you’re going to get bored of ranting at me about theatre for half an hour at a time.” Sam said teasingly. “That’s twice in two days now.”

 

“If you’d stop asking me stupid questions I wouldn’t have to.” Gabriel shrugged, unable to hold back a smirk.

 

“So, Tisch. It’s a good school?” Sam asked, letting himself sit a little closer to Gabriel again.

 

Gabriel nodded, his smirk shifting into an excited grin.

 

“A great school.” Gabriel nodded.

 

“And you think you’ve got a chance at getting in?”

 

“If I can pull a good audition.”

 

Sam tried his best to listen as Gabriel started going off on a tangent about the details of getting into the school, but he couldn’t quite stop himself from zoning out. In the back of his mind he wondered what it would have been like if he hadn’t gone out for the play. If he and Gabriel had stayed on opposite sides of the spectrum of the school.

 

Probably a hell of a lot easier. He wouldn’t have to put up with Gabriel texting him at two o’clock in the morning, pestering him about whether he’d seen the Criminal Minds season finale. He’d probably be doing better in his classes, the number of rehearsals he had to attend was getting ridiculous. He was starting to be grateful when he left school before 5pm. Dean would have one less thing to tease him about. No, there was no doubt that things would be a hell of a lot quieter if he didn’t have to deal with Gabriel Novak or this stupid play.

 

But things would be a hell of a lot more boring, Sam decided as he watched Gabriel’s face while Gabriel talked about modern monologues, Gabriel’s hands punctuating everything he said with wild gestures. Without Gabriel, Sam would still be that quiet kid with the dead dad who ate his lunches alone at the end of one of the lunch tables in the cafeteria. So maybe he could deal with a little crazyness if this was the trade off.

 

“And hey.” Gabriel said, his eyes shining as he elbowed Sam in the side, dragging Sam forcefully out of his train of thought. “If the whole acting career doesn’t work out I can always go into porn.”

 

Fuck, no, he changed his mind, Sam decided as he buried his face in his hands with a groan. Quiet. He definitely preferred the quiet.

 

\- - - - -

 

As Gabriel’s audition got closer and closer it was clear that the mixture of nerves and excitement was getting to Gabriel. Not a day went by where Gabriel didn’t bug Sam about his opinion on whatever monologue was his pick of the week. Sam learned more than he ever cared to about the intricacies of choosing a monologue, and he tried his best not to let it bore him to tears. For his audition for the play he had just used the first one he'd liked when he looked up "Monologues for guys" on the internet. Gabriel, on the other hand, had two "modern, contrasting monologues" he had to present. From what Sam was able to gather the definition of a "modern" monologue varied, and even the contrasting part wasn't entirely straightforward.

 

"It can't just be a happy monologue and a sad monologue." Gabriel had explained one day over lunch. "You've got to pick characters that are opposites as well. They don't want actors who can only play one type of role."

 

On that topic Sam was learning more than he had ever thought that he would on the topic of what sort of actors people actually were looking for. According to Gabriel they wanted actors who were versatile, but still willing to take whatever part they were given. They wanted actors who were creative, but still able to follow direction. Gabriel had almost settled on a monologue from a play that had been published only a few years ago, until he had learned that Tisch was putting on a production of that play this spring. Sam had originally assumed that this would be a good thing, that it would show the school that Gabriel cared enough to see what shows they were doing and that they could see that Gabriel would be a good fit for what was already going on at the school. But Gabriel had quickly shot that idea down.

 

"Are you crazy?" Gabriel had hissed at him while they were backstage at a rehearsal. "You know that if I do that monologue and I don't do it in exactly the way they interpret the monologue that I'm screwed! If they're putting the show up then they are going to have stupidly strong opinions about how that monologue should be presented."

 

They had started rehearsing in the auditorium now, since opening night was barely two weeks away. Sam was trying his best not to freak out about it, which was the one thing that Gabriel's freak outs actually helped him with. If he could focus on helping Gabriel calm down then he didn't need to deal with his own sense of impending doom. He had no idea how Gabriel was managing both, and when he asked all Gabriel would say was “Candy. Candy and shit tons of coffee.” All that Sam knew was that he hadn’t been this nervous about something in years.

 

Gabriel's audition, or, as Tisch called it, his Artistic Review, was scheduled for the Thursday before their show opened on the Monday. Sam was fairly certain that if he was in Gabriel's position that he would have cracked under the pressure, and while there were certain times that Sam was certain Gabriel was right on the edge of a breakdown, the other boy somehow managed to keep it together. The show itself seemed to be barely making it. Sam had only just managed to memorize his lines, and the actor playing Lysander was still having difficulties remembering which side of the stage he entered from. The dark circles under Chuck's eyes were darker than before, and these days he only ever showed up at school wearing his pajamas and bathrobe. Even Jessica, who usually did her best to stay calm and helpful was starting to crack under pressure, and recently she'd started going off on Ruby, the girl playing Hippolyta that somehow managed to show up late to every single rehearsal. But Sam has walked around a corner one day during his free period and seen Jessica curled up in a corner bawling her eyes out with one of Ruby’s arms wrapped around her, the other arm running soothingly through Jess’ hair. Sam had quickly backed away before they’d seen him, deciding it would be best not to ask any questions.

 

"You should have seen Jess last year when a senior tried to quit the show a week before we went up. I'm pretty sure the guy's scarred for life." Gabriel and murmured to Sam while the pair of them watched Jessica storm out of the room after a particularly loud shouting session.

 

"I don't doubt it." Sam murmured back, shaking his head in wonder. "I wouldn't want to get on her bad side."

 

"Oh no, we all know what you want from Jessica, Sammich." Gabriel teased, and Sam just rolled his eyes.

 

"Are you ever going to give it a break?" Sam sighed, trying to sound annoyed while his smile ruined the effect. "I don't want to date Jessica."

 

"Well I wouldn't have pegged you as the fuck 'em and leave 'em type, but whatever floats your boat." Gabriel shrugged, eyes gleaming playfully. Sam snorted.

 

“Yeah, no, I’m not.” He chuckled with fond exasperation, which was slowly becoming his default emotion when he was around Gabriel.

 

“You can’t pull the wool over my eyes, Sam.” Gabriel warned, waggling his finger sternly at Sam. “Everyone knows there’s something going on between you two.”

 

“Oh they do, do they?” Sam scoffed, and Gabriel nodded solemnly.

 

“Oh yeah. You two aren’t exactly subtle about it. You’re almost too good at playing a married couple.” Gabriel teased, and Sam just shook his head.

 

“Yeah, thanks to you.” He grinned, nudging Gabriel softly. “If you hadn’t taught me how to act then I’d still be just as awkward on stage as day one.”

 

“It’s true.” Gabriel sighed dramatically. “If it wasn't for me you'd probably be out on the streets, begging for stage directions."

 

Sam scoffed, running a hand over his face.

 

"You're impossible, Gabe."

 

"Never said I wasn't." Gabriel grinned. "And it's Gabe now, is it?"

 

"Uh..." Sam said, his face paling slightly. "That's ok, isn't it?"

 

"Yeah." Gabriel nodded, reaching over to ruffle Sam's hair affectionately, a gleam in his eyes that Sam couldn't quite place. "You can call me Gabe all you want. I like it."

 

"Glad to hear it." Sam smiled, batting Gabriel's hand away.

 

"I mean I'd prefer your majesty, but Gabe will do for now."

 

"Shut up."

 

"Oh Samalamb." Gabriel smirked, leaning in close to Sam. "I'm afraid you'll just have to make me."

 

For a moment the pair of them were silent, Gabriel's eyes never leaving Sam's. In the back of his mind Sam was reminded of the rehearsal a few months ago, when the two of them were behind the curtain. The thickness of the air, the way he couldn't quite catch his breath mixed with the inexplicable sense that Gabriel was about to kiss him... All of it was the same. But unlike last time Sam was the one to clear his throat, taking a step away from Gabriel.

 

"You're such a jerk." Was all Sam was able to get out, trying to keep his tone light, but he couldn't seem to tear his eyes off the ground. He heard Gabriel give a noncommittal hum and take a step back.

 

"Like I said, never said I wasn't." He heard Gabriel mumble, and Sam finally looked up just in time to see Gabriel run a hand through his hair. Gabriel leaned against the wall, staring off intensely into the space in front of him, clearly deep in thought. Sam felt his stomach sinking lower by the minute, and in an effort to get rid of the feeling he walked over the Gabriel, leaning against the wall next to him.

 

"Sammich?" He heard Gabriel say after a moment.

 

"Hmm?" He replied, turning his head to look at Gabriel.

 

"You really think I'm going to get into Tisch?" He asked, still unable to look at Sam.

 

“Of course I do!” Sam frowned. “What, do you think you wont?”

 

“I don’t know.” Gabriel shrugged noncommittally, and Sam realised with a start that this was the smallest he had ever seen Gabriel look. Gabriel wasn't exactly tall, but he did have a way of filling up whatever space he was in. Gabriel just had a natural presence. And this was the first time that Sam had actually seen Gabriel seem like his height.

 

"I mean I could always mess up my monologues, or I could just not be what they're looking for right now." Gabriel continued, and Sam bit his lip, hesitating for a moment.

 

Fuck it, he decided, reaching over and pulling Gabriel into a tight hug.

 

Gabriel stiffened, but Sam didn't let go. Gabriel could push him away if he wanted, but until then Sam wasn't letting go. He rested his chin on the top of Gabriel's head, smiling softly as he felt Gabriel relax in his arms and tentatively hug him back,

 

"You're going to be awesome, Gabe." Sam mumbled, feeling Gabriel nod against his shoulder. "The people from Tisch will see you act for thirty seconds and realize that they would be stupid not to let you in."

 

"Awe, don't go getting all sappy on me now." Gabriel chuckled softly, looking up at Sam and biting his lip. Sam looked down at Gabriel, offering him a small smile that Gabriel returned.

 

"I can't help it." Sam teased. "My acting coach never taught me how not to be melodramatic."

 

"Wow, sounds like a terrible coach." Gabriel said, biting his lip through a grin.

 

"Oh yeah, he's pretty bad." Sam nodded, feeling Gabriel give him a small squeeze. "But I have no idea where I'd be without him."

 

"Well don't go spreading this around, but I've heard the guy's got a bit of a soft spot for you too, kiddo."

 

"Oh for crying out loud." Chuck groaned, poking his head backstage. "Gabriel. You just missed your cue. Twice."

 

"Oops." Gabriel grinned, letting go of Sam. "Sorry, Chuckie."

 

"Just... Just get on stage please?" Chuck sighed, running both his hands over his face tiredly before walking back on stage again.

 

"Well I should get on stage, it seems they're pretty helpless without me." Gabriel said with an apologetic smile, and Sam just rolled his eyes at Gabriel, giving him a soft shrug before pushing him towards the stage.

 

"Just go, dork." He laughed, and Gabriel's smile widened into a grin.

 

"Fine. But don't think you've gotten rid of me, Sambo. I'll be back." He promised before crouching down and somersaulting onto the stage.

 

\- - - - -

 

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Gabriel collapsed against the wall of the alleyway, resting his head against the brick as he fought to take steady breaths. He was shaking, he could tell, his movements causing the rough texture of the brick to pull at his skin. He had to fight to stay standing, and his stomach swirled in a way that made him feel like he was about to be sick.

 

Fuck.

 

Why had he thought this would be a good idea? How could he have been so stupid? He shouldn’t have even bothered to audition in the first place, he should have known something like that would happen. What made him think that he could even be an actor in the first place? There wasn’t a place for someone like him, and no matter how hard he tried that was never going to change. There was nothing he could do.

 

Gabriel let out a choked sob, finally allowing the tears he’d been holding back since he’d left the audition room fall, searing their way down his cheeks.

 

Hell, and of course he had to be breaking down like this in public too. Anyone walking by this fucking alley would be able to see him breaking down like this, and know exactly how big of a failure he was. Michael was right.

 

Gabriel felt his legs begin to shake, and he slammed his fist into the brick wall, feeling the skin split. Fine. Better bleeding than crumpling to the ground. The let out a growl of frustration, which morphed into a sob halfway through. He slowly allowed himself to sink to the ground, burying his face in his hands as his body wracked with sobs. Fuck, fuck he couldn’t do this. He refused to cry in an alleyway. Absolutely refused. He had to pull himself out of this somehow.

 

Sam.

 

He shoved a shaking hand into his pocket, fumbling around frantically for his phone, his sobs turning to hiccups.

 

This was a bad idea, a voice in the back of his brain whispered to him. Sam doesn't need this, doesn't need Gabriel bothering him with this crap. Sam has enough on his plate without needing to deal with Gabriel's shit as well. Especially with the play right around the corner. But Gabriel's fingers clearly weren't listening, and they had dialed Sam's number by memory before Gabriel's brain could stop them, putting the call on speaker phone.

 

The phone rang. It rang and rang and Sam didn't pick up, leaving Gabriel crouched in an alley, clutching his phone like a drowning man. He nearly hung up, in fact his thumb was hovering over the button when at last the dial tone stopped, and Sam's voice rang out through the alleyway.

 

"Hello? Who's there?" Gabriel heard him say, Sam's voice tinny and a little distorted through the phone's speaker. Gabriel was silent for a moment, biting his lip as he tried to decide whether or not to speak, tears streaming silently down his face.

 

"Hello?" Sam said again, a little tiredly this time, and Gabriel heard himself speak instinctively.

 

"Sammy." Gabriel choked out, his voice thick with tears, but steadier than he would have thought it would be.

 

"Gabriel?" Sam said, and Gabriel could practically hear the Sam's concern.

 

"Sammy..." Gabriel said again, his voice cracking halfway through it this time.

 

"Shit." Sam breathed, and Gabriel heard some indistinct noises from Sam's side. "Gabe, are you alright?"

 

The sound of the nickname broke him again, and Gabriel let out a sob, curling his arms sightly around himself in a futile attempt to hold himself together.

 

"Fuck, Gabriel, please, what the hell is going on?" Sam said through the phone, a note of panic in his voice.

 

"I-I completely bo-bombed it, Sammy." Gabriel sobbed.

 

"What, your Tisch audition?"

 

Gabriel nodded, before remembering that Sam couldn't actually see him.

 

"Yeah." He choked out, hearing Sam curse again on the other side of the line.

 

"Where are you? Can I come get you?"

 

Gabriel bit his lip, shaking his head.

 

"N-no, no I'm downtown. I-I… I’ll be fine, don't worry ab-bout me.” Gabriel insisted, wiping the tears off his cheek, only to have them replaced with fresh ones.

 

“Don’t be stupid.” Sam insisted, and Gabriel could hear Sam gathering things up on the other line. “You sound like you’re a mess, so I’m coming to get you. Where are you?”

 

Gabriel bit his lip, looking up and down the alley. Damn it, if Sam was going to insist on seeing him then he couldn’t let it be here. “Do you know that spot by the lake, right behind the planetarium? That big circle? I’ll meet you there.”

 

“Alright. You sure you’re ok to get there?”

 

“I’ll be fine, kiddo.” Gabriel said softly, the flow of tears gradually slowing down. Both of them were silent for a moment, neither of them wanting to be the one to hang up. Eventually Gabriel bit his lip and hit the end call button, slowly standing up and making his way towards the street to get a taxi.

 

Once his taxi pulled up in front of the planetarium Gabriel paid the driver, slipping out of the cab and making his way towards the area behind the planetarium. The building was built on a bit of a peninsula, jutting out from the shore of Lake Michigan. A large horseshoe-shaped bit of sidewalk went around behind the planetarium, running right along the water. Gabriel made his way there, walking down to the bleacher shaped steps that led to the edge of the water, sitting down on the the lowest step. The sun had already started to set when Gabriel had left his audition, a drawback of this time of year, and by now it was starting to get properly dark. The lampposts illuminated his surroundings, giving everything long shadows.

 

A few minutes went by, and Gabriel heard someone come up behind him, not bothering to look away from the lake, letting the sight of the waves lapping against the concrete a few yards in front of him numb his mind. Sam sat down next to Gabriel, not entirely sure what to say.

 

“The water looks pretty.” Sam commented after a moment, and Gabriel nodded silently, still looking blankly out at the water. Sam bit his lip, looking down at his lap. He really had no idea what he was doing, people skills weren’t exactly his thing. Charlie would know what to do, he was sure, or Jess. Hell, even Garth would probably be better at this than Sam. He’d never been that kid who had a lot of friends. After his dad had died he’d drawn in on himself, preferring to cut himself off from the rest of the students than try to keep up with friends and have to watch everyone pity him. This was the first year he hadn’t eaten his lunches alone, after he’d gotten cast in the play.

 

But he refused to just sit here and watch Gabriel close more and more in on himself.

 

“Gabe, look, I don’t know what happened at the audition exactly, but I’m pretty sure it can’t be as bad as you think it was.” Sam tried, putting a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.

 

“Oh really.” Gabriel laughed bitterly, finally looking over at Sam. “It was pretty damn bad, Sammich.”

 

“Can you tell me what happened then?” Sam asked, moving his hand down to rub small circles into Gabriel’s back, trying to be comforting. Gabriel flinched, but he didn’t move away from Sam, and the tension slowly leaked out of him the more time passed.

 

“I was stupid.” Gabriel mumbled, looking down at the concrete. “I was freaking out last night and I couldn’t sleep. So I went over my monologues for like four hours, then I decided to play some _Call of Duty_ , and before I knew it it was five in the morning.”

 

“Ok…” Sam nodded, trying to see where this was going.

 

“Well I’d planned on going to bed early, so I hadn’t bothered setting an alarm, because I figured my review was late enough in the day…” Gabriel continued, trailing off.

 

“Shit.” Sam breathed, finally getting it.

 

“Yeah.” Gabriel nodded, his voice a little shaky. He’d been stupid. So fucking stupid. Careless, really, and now he’d lost the tiny chance he’d had. “My timeslot was 4:00 - 5:00. I woke up at 4, got there at 4:30.”

 

“But you didn’t miss all of it?” Sam pointed out, his voice tentatively hopeful.

 

“But I missed most of it!” Gabriel said, his voice breaking. “I got there in time for some of the group stuff they had us do, but there was only enough time for me to do one of my monologues.”

 

“You got to do one at least though?” Sam said, starting to rub Gabriel’s back again, but Gabriel flinched away from him.

 

“One monologue! I showed up half an hour late to my artistic review for one of the top theatre schools in the country, looking like a total mess, and I only got to perform one fucking monologue!” Gabriel snapped, before all his anger left him and he deflated, burying his face in his hands.

 

Sam bit his lip, looking first at Gabriel and then at the space between him. Damn it, he really was awful at this. He slid over to Gabriel, taking the chance at pulling Gabriel into a hug. Gabriel didn’t flinch, but he didn’t exactly relax into Sam’s arms either. He just sat there, vaguely pliant, while Sam held him.

 

“Did your one monologue go ok though?” Sam asked, resting his chin on the top of Gabriel’s head.

 

“I think so?” Gabriel mumbled. “But I was kind of freaking out through the whole thing. I probably sounded godawful.”

 

“Well hey, it could have been worse?” Sam said after a moment.

 

“Oh really.” Gabriel sighed “I can’t see how.”

 

“Well for starters you could have shown up drunk, flirted with a curtain, and ripped your pants by trying to do splits in skinny jeans.” Sam grinned, and Gabriel snorted against Sam’s chest, letting out a weak laugh.

 

“I can’t believe you remember that stupid story.” Gabriel murmured, shaking his head softly. “That was what, back in November?"

 

"Uh huh." Sam nodded.

 

"Pretty long time for you to remember something like that."

 

"Well what can I say, you made an impression."

 

"I guess I did." Gabriel sighed, allowing himself to relax fully against Sam. Sam hugged Gabriel a little tighter, bringing one of his hands up to gently play with Gabriel's hair. Gabriel let out a tiny sigh of contentment, shuffling his position so that he could get a little closer to Sam.

 

"It's not going to be as bad as you think." Sam said softly, and Gabriel nodded. "I mean you've got your backup schools, right?"

 

Gabriel was silent.

 

"Gabe?" Sam asked, looking down at him. "You did apply to backup schools, right?"

 

"Well I meant to, but..."

 

"Gabriel!" Sam groaned in halfhearted exasperation.

 

"Well there was nowhere else I really wanted to go. If I didn't get into Tisch my plan was to get an agent and just start trying to find parts."

 

Sam sighed, shaking his head softly. "What the hell am I going to do with you?"

 

"Anything you'd like." Gabriel said, trying to be teasing, but it came out sounding a little pathetic. "My safeword is kielbasa."

 

Sam gave a snort of laughter, wrapping his arms tightly around Gabriel again. Gabriel sighed, letting Sam pull him in close.

 

"I'm really glad you decided to go out for the play, Sam." Gabriel murmured, resting his head on Sam's shoulder, and Sam looked down at him with one eyebrow raised.

 

"You know I think that's the first time I've heard you call me just my normal name..."

 

"I said no such thing, Samasaurus Rex." Gabriel said quickly, and Sam laughed, nuzzling his face against the top of Gabriel's head in a way that had Gabriel's heart skip a beat.

 

"Well then, for the record, I'm glad I did this play too. It's taken up way too much of my time, I'm constantly exhausted, and you guys are all completely insane, but I'm really, really glad I decided to go for it." Sam smiled, and Gabriel nodded.

 

The two of them sat together for a while, listening to the sounds of the lake and of cars in the distance, content in their closeness. Gabriel really had meant it, that he was glad that Sam had done the play. And sure, maybe Gabriel had slipped the hint to Chuck that he thought that Sam would make a good Oberon, but it wasn't like anyone could blame him. Sam was six feet of gorgeousness, and the smile on the guy was like a literal beam of sunshine. He hadn't really known Sam before the play, but in the brief conversation he'd had with the guy he knew he wanted to get to know him a little better. And the fact that Sam had turned out to be one of the sweetest guy’s he’d ever met? Well that was just a happy bonus.

 

And _as if_ the guy was straight. No one with hair like that was 100% heterosexual.

 

Gabriel honestly didn’t want to think about what it had been like before Sam. Sam was sweet, caring, funny, the human embodiment of sass, and looked damn good under stage lights. There were times when Gabriel would just sit up in one of the fake trees and watch Sam deliver his lines, and the light would hit Sam’s face just right, showing off the kid’s cheekbones, and Gabriel would literally feel short of breath. Which sounded extremely corny, and if anyone else had said it Gabriel probably would have laughed. But this was Sam, and it somehow didn’t sound as stupid.

 

But there were still some things that Gabriel did around Sam that he knew were ridiculous. Mostly things to do with Jessica. For example, he knew damn well that it was stupid for him to feel nauseous every time he looked over and saw Sam and Jess laughing about something in the corner, with Jessica’s hand on Sam’s arm like she had some right to be touching him like that. Like Sam was hers. Which was stupid, of course, since Sam didn’t belong to anybody.

 

And Gabriel had asked. He’d gone around the school, trying to figure out what people knew about Sam. For completely valid reasons, of course. What if Sam had turned out to be some some sort of monster, coming into Gabriel’s theatre program just to mess it up? So yes, going around and asking people if that quiet, nerdy Winchester kid was single was totally called for. And from what he could tell Sam hadn’t dated a single person at this school. Which was just fine with Gabriel, most of the people at their school were either assholes or airheads. But that also meant that Sam was single, and that made his stomach twist in a way he didn't want to think too hard about.

 

But judging by the way Sam looked at Jessica he wasn't going to stay single for long. The only one that Sam laughed with more was him, and if Sam hadn't responded to his flirting by now then he probably never would. Which meant that there was about a 70% chance that he would end up dating Jessica. And he'd be happy. Hell, he'd probably be more than happy, as far as Gabriel could tell. The two of them would probably end up dating after they graduated, and three years down the road they'd get engaged, and after they were married they'd move into a house in the suburbs together. They'd have a white picket fence, a perfectly green lawn, artfully trimmed hedges, and 2.5 perfect kids, with Jess' hair and Sam's eyes. The two of them would grow old together, and they'd be buried in graves right next to each other. Gabriel just wished that the idea didn't make him sick to his stomach.

 

He wasn't stupid. He knew damn well that he had no sort of claim over Sam. Hell, that wasn't even the sort of thing he normally wanted. Relationships weren't usually his thing. He preferred the whole love 'em and leave 'em style, in and out before he could be forced to actually face the facts and feel something. Better not to risk it than to end up getting hurt. So maybe it was best if Sam ended up with Jess, really. He'd be better off with her. At least Jessica wouldn't end up hurting him. At least Sam wouldn't get bored of Jessica.

 

At least then Gabriel wouldn't have to think about why it felt like his heart rose into his throat every time Sam walked into the room, or why all it took for Gabriel to blush these days was to have Sam turn and smile at him, his eyes practically screaming "Do you see this too?" At least then Gabriel wouldn't have to think about why he found himself showing up to school early, just so that he could say hi to Sam when Sam showed up. Or why he always barely avoided being late to his third class of the day, because he knew that if he took a route that was twice as long as his normal one that he would pass Sam while Sam was on his way to his Algebra class. At least then he wouldn't have to think about why he stayed up every night, staring at his ceiling as he replayed the interactions he'd had with Sam during the day over in his head, clutching his pillow to his chest and grinning like an idiot. Or why he always seemed to find himself staring at Sam when he thought he was just staring off into space.

 

Charlie had noticed it too, over the past few weeks. Whenever Sam would walk into the room now Charlie would nudge him in the side just to make sure that Gabriel had noticed him, as if Gabriel hadn't already noticed and was about to start jogging towards Sam like some sort of puppy. Charlie had started referring to Sam as Gabriel's boyfriend when they texted each other, and while Gabriel had protested at first, saying that Charlie was being an idiot, Gabriel didn't want to think about why he almost liked Charlie calling Sam that now.

 

As if her calling him that made it true.

 

Fuck.

 

He was in love with Sam.

 

Gabriel was in love with Sam Winchester, and he was so fucking screwed.

 

“Gabe?” Sam frowned, noticing Gabriel tense up slightly. “You ok?”

 

“Yeah, kiddo, I’m fine.” Gabriel nodded, forcing a smile, though Sam could tell he was clearly shaken about something. “I think I should head home. Do you have a car?”

 

“No, sorry.” Sam shook his head. “I took a cab. You?”

 

“Same here.” Gabriel said, pulling away from Sam and stretching.

 

“We could split a cab back?” Sam offered, and Gabriel shook his head.

 

“No, it’s ok, I think I could use the walk.” Gabriel decided, standing up and brushing himself off. Sam frowned, looking up at Gabriel.

 

“You sure? Isn’t it what, a half an hour walk back to your place?”

 

“Like I said, I could use the walk.” Gabriel said, running a hand through his hair.

 

“I honestly wouldn’t mind splitting a cab. Hell, I’ll pay for all of it if you don’t have the cash.” Sam offered, finally standing up.

 

“Sam, I’m fine.” Gabriel insisted curtly, waving a hand dismissively at Sam and turning away, though Sam could already tell he looked a little distant.

 

“Well ok, if you say so…” Sam bit his lip, and Gabriel just shrugged, starting to walk up the steps back towards the road.

 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?” He called back to Sam, who nodded, his forehead furrowing.

 

“Oh, wait!” Sam called, jogging up the steps to catch up with Gabriel. “Are you coming to the cast party tomorrow? Jess told me about it.”

 

Gabriel felt a jolt run through him at the mention of Jessica’s name, but he brushed it off.

 

“Yeah, of course I’ll be there. It’s at Ruby’s, and she always has the good booze. Hard stuff, not just beer.” Gabriel nodded, forcing himself to shoot Sam a small smile.

 

Sam frowned, looking down at his feet as the two made their way towards the road together.

 

“I’ve never actually been properly drunk before.” Sam admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean I’ve had a few drinks before, and I’ve gotten tipsy. Dean thought it was hilarious. But I’ve never actually been full out smashed.”

 

“Well then.” Gabriel said, a genuine grin spreading over his face as he clapped Sam on the shoulder. “Tomorrow night’s going to be the ride of your life.”

 

Sam laughed at that, rolling his eyes. Well at least Gabriel was sounding slightly normal again.

 

“We’ll see.” He smiled.

 

“You are planning on drinking, right?” Gabriel added, and Sam nodded.

 

“Yeah, I guess. Why not.” He smiled.

 

“If you think it’ll be a problem showing up at home like that then you can stay the night at Ruby’s. There’s usually a whole group of us that do.” Gabriel offered.

 

“Yeah, sure.” Sam shrugged, and Gabriel grinned.

 

“Trust me, Sammy, you’re going to have a great time. Better than great, probably.” Gabriel promised, his eyes gleaming. “Hell, if you want I could probably find a way to hook you up with Jessica.”

 

A voice in the back of his head started snapping at him over the offer, but Gabriel pushed it aside. What mattered, in the end, was that Sam was happy.

 

“No, I think that’s ok.” Sam replied, shutting up the voice in the back of Gabriel’s head entirely. When Gabriel looked over at Sam the kid was frowning. “I mean Jess is nice and everything, and she’s really great. But I wouldn’t want anything to happen between us because someone set us up at the party, if I’d actually want something to happen between us at all. It wouldn’t feeI… Real, I guess. And keep telling you guys, there’s nothing going on with her and me.”

 

“If you say so.” Gabriel shrugged “I won’t bother if you don’t want me to. Just remember that the offer’s there.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Sam promised, coming to a stop as they reached the sidewalk in front of the road, cars whipping past them. Gabriel waited with Sam as Sam hailed a taxi, watching Sam slip inside.

 

“Are you sure you don’t want a ride?” Sam asked, leaning his head out the window of the cab, and Gabriel nodded.

 

“Yeah, Sam-I-Am, I’ll be fine.” Gabriel insisted, reaching a hand through the window to ruffle Sam’s hair. Any excuse to touch Sam, right? “But thanks for coming out to cheer me up.”

 

“As if I could have just sat at home.” Sam scoffed. “You can call me any time you need me, ok? I promise I’ll make time to help you.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Gabriel promised, ignoring the way the words made his chest contract painfully. “Night, Sammy.”

 

“Night Gabe.” Sam smiled, rolling up the window as he told the driver where to go. Gabriel stood on the sidewalk for a while, watching the cab pull away, and he waited for it to be out of sight before turning and walking in the direction of his house.

 

\- - - - -

 

When Sam had brought up the cast party with Dean his brother had been almost stupidly excited.

 

“For God’s sake, Dean, it’s a cast party, not a kegger at a frat house.” Sam sighed, covering his face with one of his hands. “Which, by the way, you shouldn’t want me to be going to either.”

 

“Shut up.” Dean laughed, shaking his head at Sam. “And for the record the best keggers are at sororities. Because the girls dish out for the good stuff, and there’s usually as many chicks as there are guys, and you don’t have to worry about showing up any of the frat guys on their own turf if you want to get a little ass.”

 

“Yeah, thanks, I really, really didn’t want to know that.” Sam shuddered, and Dean reached over, pulling Sam close and wrapping his arm tightly around his shoulder.

 

“You know I’m just messing with you.” Dean chuckled, ruffling Sam’s hair and making Sam flinch, trying to squirm out of Dean’s grip.

 

“You’re acting like one of those mom’s on TV when their daughter gets asked out on a date for the first time.” Sam grumbled, doing his best to shake Dean off, but Dean’s grip stayed firm.

 

“Well do you have a date?” Dean asked, raising an eyebrow at Sam.

 

Sam frowned, staying silent.

 

“You do!” Dean cheered, punching a fist into the air. “My baby brother, finally going on his first date. It’s enough to make a guy cry.”

 

“I do not have a date!” Sam huffed, managing to squirm out from under Dean’s arm.

 

“Alright, well then someone you’re interested in is going to be at the party.” Dean decided, crossing his arms over his chest. “Who is it?”

 

“There’s no one, Dean.” Sam insisted, rolling his eyes at Dean.

 

“Sure there isn’t.” Dean scoffed. “What, is it that Jessica chick?”

 

“Just because she brought me my biology homework one day doesn’t mean that we’re dating, or that I’m interested in her.” Sam sighed, walking towards the kitchen to get himself a drink of water.

 

“Hey, she’s hot. You’d have to be kind of an idiot not to be interested in her.” Dean grinned, following Sam into the kitchen and leaning against the fridge.

 

“Well I’m not, so butt out ok?” Sam all but growled, and Dean raised an eyebrow at him.

 

“Woah, you’re touchy today, princess. Sorry for thinking you’re interested in the hot girl you’ve been hanging out with.” He said, holding up his hands defensively. Sam grabbed a glass from the cupboard and slamming it shut a little harder than he needed to.

 

“Well that’s just it.” Sam said, glaring holes into the sink as he turned the tap on. “Everyone under the sun seems to think that her and I are secretly dating or at least pining after each other, and I’m just tired of it!”

 

“Alright, alright, calm down before you break something.” Dean interrupted, walking over to Sam and taking the glass out of his hand, shutting off the tap, ignoring Sam’s cry of protest. “Something’s going on here, and you’re going to level with me about it.”

 

“Since when are you one for talking out our problems, Dean?” Sam snapped.

 

“Since now.” Dean said decidedly, setting Sam’s glass down on the counter behind him. “So talk.”

 

“Dean, it’s nothing. I don’t want to-”

 

“I said talk.” Dean said firmly, raising an eyebrow at Sam, who glared at him defiantly.

 

“You know if you won’t tell me I’ll just have to guess.” Dean warned. Sam stayed silent.

 

“Your dick’s fallen off.” Dean tried, and Sam was unable to hold back a scoff. “Your blood’s turned green, and you just want to tell everyone to live long and prosper.”

 

“And you call me a nerd.” Sam snorted.

 

“You want to ditch this whole Law School idea and run off to join the circus.” Dean kept going, ignoring Sam’s interruption.

 

“Dean, come on, stop it.” Sam laughed, shaking his head.

 

“You like someone else.” Dean said simply, raising an eyebrow at Sam, who abruptly stopped laughing, his face falling.

 

“You can tell me who it is, you know. I’m not gonna be pissed.” Dean said, but Sam stayed silent, looking down at his feet.

 

“Or you can stay silent and make this a hundred times harder than it needs to be.” Dean sighed, sliding up so that he was leaning against the counter next to Sam.

 

“Look.” Dean began, making sure to leave an inch of space between himself and Sam. “I don’t know who it is that’s got you all tied up like this. I mean I have some ideas, but I’m not gonna know for sure unless you tell me.” He waited for Sam to nod. “All I can say is that 90% of the time we make this crap a hell of a lot more complicated in our heads than it actually is out in the real world, ok?” Dean said, and Sam simply shuffled his feet on the floor. “Seriously. Whatever shit you think is going to go down if you tell this person? It’s probably not gonna happen. If they’re going to be at this cast party or whatever you call it then I’m betting they’re one of those theatre nerds you’ve been hanging around with, right?” Dean paused again, waiting for a reaction from Sam. Eventually Sam nodded, and Dean went on. “Alright. Well then this person’s going to be in the play with you, and if they don’t feel the same way as you then they’ll just deal with it. Will things get a little awkward? Yeah. But unfixable? Hell no.”

 

“Dean, you don’t-”

 

“I don’t care that I don’t know your “exact situation”, or whatever crap you were trying to feed me just there.” Dean went on, shaking his head. “Because whoever they are, if they’re worth you pining over like some princess locked in a tower then they’re not going to hightail it and run the other way because you told them you care about them.”

 

“He.” Sam mumbled. “It’s a he.”

 

Dean nodded, patting Sam on the back before he kept going. “Alright, well like I was saying. If this guy is worth your time then he’s not going to act like a dick. I take it you don’t know if he’s into you or not?”

 

“I don’t know. Sometimes I think he might be, but then other times he seems like he really wants to push me off onto someone else.” Sam explained quietly, running a hand through his hair.

 

“Maybe the guy’s just deflecting?” Dean offered, and Sam shook his head.

 

“I doubt it. He isn’t exactly the relationship type anyways, so I doubt he’d actually want anything serious, even if he was interested.”

 

“Could be true.” Dean admitted. “Or he could want something, and is pushing you away because he’s a little freaked out by it.”

 

“Yeah, I guess.” Sam sighed, shaking his head softly.

 

“Just tell him, Sammy.” Dean insisted, putting a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “It’s not going to be as bad as you’d think.”

 

Sam nodded, sighing down towards the floor.

 

“Now are you sure you won’t let me help you pick something better to wear?” Dean asked, gesturing down to Sam’s outfit. “Because dude, I swear, some skinny jeans could do wonders for you.”

 

“I look fine, Dean.” Sam huffed, rolling his eyes as he walked away from Dean.

 

“Yeah, but I could help you look great.” Dean grinned, and Sam flipped him off before heading into the living room, shooting Gabriel a text to see how far away he was. They’d decided to go together, since Gabriel had been able to steal one of the family cars. Perks of being friends with a rich guy, he supposed. His phone vibrated a moment later, letting Sam know that Gabriel was five minutes out. Sam slipped his phone back into his pocket, letting himself turn so that he could look himself over in the hall mirror.

 

Sam looked alright. Nothing special, but he’d had a shower and blow dried his hair. He’d put on a clean pair of pants, and under Dean’s suggestion he’d worn only a form fitting black v-neck tshirt, forgoing his usual layers. In short, this would have to do.

 

“I still think you should go for the skinny jeans.” Dean said, sliding up to stand next to Sam.

 

“Not going to happen.” Sam said quickly, taking a step to the side away from Dean.

 

“Oh for fuck’s sake, at least untuck your shirt.” Dean groaned, gesturing to Sam’s t-shirt, which was tucked into the waist of his pants. Sam looked down, feeling his cheeks heat up slightly in embarrassment as he untucked his shirt.

 

“Better?” Sam sighed, looking back over at Dean, who grinned, clapping Sam on the back.

 

“You look great, kid.” Dean nodded, his voice warm with pride. Sam made a face.

 

“Please tell me you’re not going to get all sappy on me.” Sam groaned. “It’s just a party, Dean. Aren’t you supposed to be telling me not to drink?”

 

“Nah.” Dean shrugged. “Just only drink something if you know what’s in it, if your drink suddenly tastes more bitter than it did before then go puke up that roofie you just drank, if someone passes out make sure they’re lying on their side. You’re seventeen, so unless you get fucking smashed as hell you probably won’t get hungover, but if you’re worried just drink some water every half hour or so, and eat some bread. None of that green crap, and-”

 

“Dean, I know!” Sam sighed in annoyance, raising his eyes to the ceiling. “Seriously, you’ve been giving me these lectures since I was nine.”

 

“Yeah, and now you’re finally gonna put ‘em to good use. Never been prouder.” Dean sighed, dramatically wiping away a fake tear. “You think you’re coming home tonight?”

 

“No, I think most of us are going to stay at Ruby’s.”

 

“Alright. If any shit goes down and you need to get out of there just give me a call, I’ll come bail you out.”

 

“I’m not a girl scout, Dean, I’ll be fine.” Sam groaned, running a hand tiredly over his face.

 

“And I’m serious about that whole love life thing. Just tell the guy you’re into him.” Dean added, and Sam raised an eyebrow at Dean.

 

“Do you know how stupid you sound?” Sam sighed. “Since when do you get to give love advice?”

 

“Since now.”

 

“Oh yeah? And how long exactly did it take you to ask out that guy from the coffee shop? Oh wait, you didn’t ask him. He had to ask you.” Sam grinned, and Dean’s face turned bright red.

 

“Shut your face.” He grumbled. “But hey, at least one of us made a move.”

 

“After how many years exactly?”

 

“I said shut it.” Dean snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. “And we’ve actually got a date tonight, once I can get your ass out of here.”

 

“Oh yeah, trust me, I do not want to be around for that.” Sam grinned, and Dean rolled his eyes at Sam.

 

“Bitch.”

 

“Jerk.”

 

“Wait, Sammy’s a bottom?”

 

Sam turned around to see who had spoken, sighing in exasperation when he caught sight of Gabriel sanding in the open doorway.

 

“Don’t you knock?” Sam said, and Gabriel just grinned.

 

“Aw, now where’s the fun in that?”

 

“Alright, your ride’s here. Now beat it.” Dean cut in, giving Sam a little shove.

 

“He just wants me out of his way so he can have some alone time with his boyfriend.” Sam explained to Gabriel, and Dean turned beet red.

 

“He’s not my boyfriend!”

 

“Oh, right, of course, he’s just the guy you’ve been dating for three months. My mistake.” Sam rolled his eyes with a grin, and Dean threw his hands up in the air in surrender.

 

“I’m still batting better than you.”

 

“And we’re out of here.” Sam said quickly, grabbing his jacket. “Come on Gabe.”

 

Gabriel just laughed, looking between the pair of brothers for a moment before following Sam out the front door, closing it behind them.

 

“I’m parked just around the corner. Come on, follow me.” Gabriel said once they were off the porch, gesturing to the right. Sam nodded, following after Gabriel.

 

“I gotta say, Moose, you clean up nice.” Gabriel said after a moment, breaking the silence that had been building. Sam forced away a blush.

 

“Thanks.” He said simply, unable to hold back a smile as he glanced over at Gabriel out of the corner of his eye. “You don’t look half bad yourself.”

 

Although, Sam admitted to himself, fantastic probably hit closer to the mark. Gabriel wasn't wearing anything particularly fancy, just a dark red shirt and a pair of skinny jeans, but everything seemed to be tailor fit to him in a way that made Sam's throat go a little dry. But this should be nothing, he reminded himself. He'd seen Gabriel in the tights Chuck had forced Gabriel to try on at the dress rehearsal, and those had almost made Sam need to excuse himself from the room to go take a breather in the bathroom until his pants felt a little less tight. Thankfully Chuck had decided against the tights and Gabriel was now wearing a pair of dark green harem pants for the show, so at least Sam didn't need to worry about popping a nut on stage.

 

Sam mentally shook his head, pulling himself out of that train of thought. So not what he needed to be thinking about right now. It was Gabriel's current outfit he should be focusing on. But the way that the skinny jeans clung to Gabriel's ass made him realize that no, if he wanted to get out of this alive he really, really needed to stop thinking about what Gabriel wore, period. It wasn't Sam's fault the guy was so damn hot. Gabriel wasn't even exactly hot in the conventional way, but Sam had slowly learned that Gabriel was the type of guy who got hotter the longer you knew him. Because now Sam knew what lay behind that stupid smirk of Gabriel's (That he sort of desperately wanted to kiss away every time it flickered across Gabriel's face), was able to interpret that glimmer behind Gabriel's eyes, and he could appreciate how fluid Gabriel always looked when he moved. It wasn't entirely Gabriel's body that made him hot, Sam had realized, but the way that Gabriel operated it. (“Even a Stradivarius violin is nothing if it's not played by a master violinist”, Sam had absolutely _not_ scribbled into a bit of poetry he absolutely _not_ written when he couldn't get Gabriel out of his head at three o'clock in the morning.)

 

"So then I told Chuck there was a significant lack of gay sex in the second act of the play, so he decided that we should get Garth and Samandriel to-"

 

"Woah, hold up, what the fuck?" Sam frowned, Gabriel's words wrenching him violently out of his train of thought.

 

"And he's back." Gabriel chuckled, shaking his head softly as he led Sam around the corner. "You zoned out there, Sammich. I wanted to see what it took to bring you back down to earth." He teased, reaching up to ruffle Sam's hair.

 

"Is touching my hair your new favourite pastime?" Sam frowned, ducking away from Gabriel's hand and running a hand through his hair in an attempt to smooth it down again.

 

"Well hey, can you blame me? You've gotta admit, you've got a pretty nice hair." Gabriel smirked.

 

"Thanks." Sam said sarcastically, finally managing to get his hair back in order.

 

“It’s this car here.” Sam heard Gabriel say from beside him, and Sam came to a stop, his mouth falling open as he gave the car a once over.

 

“A Buick Special?” Sam said, a little stunned. “Gabe, holy shit that’s-”

 

“The sexiest car you’ve ever seen?” Gabriel offered, and Sam couldn’t even bring himself to disagree. The car was bright red and gleaming in the light of the sunset, and Sam was pretty sure that if he wanted to have sex in any car it would be this one.

 

“It’s a ‘55.” Gabriel supplied, filling the space left by Sam’s silence.

 

“It’s gorgeous.” Sam admitted, tempted to reach out and touch it, but Sam had lived with Dean long enough to know that this car had clearly been waxed not long ago, and he didn’t want Gabriel to kill him for wrecking it.

 

“Well don’t just stand there drooling, hop on in.” Gabriel grinned, putting one hand on the side of the car, jumping up and swinging himself gracefully over the top of the door, landing in the driver’s seat. Sam raised an eyebrow at him, muttering something about show offs under his breath as he walked around the front of the car, getting into the passenger seat.

 

“You know my brother would probably jizz in his pants if he so much as saw this car.” Sam admitted as he did up his seatbelt, finally coming back to his senses a little bit.

 

Gabriel snorted. “So not the mental image I needed.”

 

“I mean he works in a garage, so he knows a lot about them, and he’s so in love with his car it’s almost a little gross.” Sam laughed.

 

“What’s he got?” Gabriel asked, turning the key in the ignition, and Sam waited a minute to respond, listening to the purr of the engine.

 

“A ‘67 Impala.” He said eventually, sighing when he realized that Gabriel had no intention of doing up his seatbelt. He leaned over, grabbing the buckle and beginning to pull, but Gabriel slapped his hand away.

 

“What are you, my mother?” He frowned. “I can do up my own damn seat belt.”

 

“Fine, fine.” Sam said, holding up his hands defensively while Gabriel buckled his seatbelt.

 

“Speaking of Winchester, first edition, I had a question I wanted to ask, actually.” Gabriel said once he was strapped down, pulling the car away from the curb.

 

“Uh, yeah?” Sam frowned. “Go ahead, I guess. What’s up?”

 

“You never really bring up your dad or your mom, is it just you and Dean-o, or…?” Gabriel asked, glancing over at Sam and watching his face fall.

 

“Oh.” Sam said simply, rubbing his arm. Gabriel winced, internally kicking himself.

 

“Shit, sorry, sore subject?”

 

“No, it’s ok.” Sam shrugged with a halfhearted smile. “I just don’t really talk about it much.”

 

“Well you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Gabriel said quickly. Nice going, Novak, what an impressive fuck up.

 

Sam shrugged.

 

“It’s fine, I don’t really mind.” He promised, looking out at the road through the dashboard. “Mom died when I was just a baby. House fire.” Sam explained, doing his best to sound impassive about it. Which he was, a little bit. Stuff like that never stopped hurting, but you did learn how to pretend you were numb to the pain. Sometimes so well that he almost believed himself. “It really sort of messed my dad up. He was an ex-marine, and really came down hard on Dean after that. Became convinced that someone had set the fire on purpose. So he went out on these huge trips across the country trying to find the big missing piece that would lead him to mom’s killer or something.”

 

Gabriel was silent beside Sam, his grip on the steering wheel a little tighter than it needed to be.

 

“Is that where he is?” Gabriel asked after Sam had been silent for a moment. “On the road somewhere?”

 

“Nah.” Sam shook his head, watching the sun sink lower and lower on the horizon. “Not anymore. Dad was always a drunk, one day he ran himself into a tree. I’d just started eighth grade, Dean was barely out of high school. It was... rough.” Sam admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

 

“Christ.” Gabriel breathed next to him, shaking his head. “Sammy, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

 

“It’s ok.” Sam promised, turning to look at Gabriel and forcing a smile. “It’s old news, really.”

 

“But I get the whole absent dad thing, I really do.” Gabriel said, trying to find some way to salvage this conversation before one of them ended up crying. “My dad’s never really around. He does some sort of big business stuff, selling bibles or something. Hell, to tell the truth have no idea what he does, and I don’t really want to.” Gabriel admitted. “Michael, he’s the oldest out of my metric shit ton of siblings, he pretty much runs stuff while dad’s off god knows where doing god knows what.”

 

“And your mom?” Sam asked.

 

Gabriel shrugged.

 

“Never met my mom. Honestly? I doubt that all of us have the same mom. Dad doesn’t seem the type to settle on one thing for long.” Gabriel explained, and Sam nodded in understanding. The two of them were silent for a while, and eventually Gabriel pulled up in front of a house, putting the car in park.

 

“We’re here.” Gabriel said, and Sam nodded again, unbuckling his seat belt. He made a move to get out of the car, but before he could he felt a hand on his arm.

 

“Shit.” Gabriel swore, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, fuck, I’m an asshole. I’ve been talking for weeks about Tisch and what I’m doing after graduation, but I don’t think I’ve ever bothered to ask you what your plans are.

 

“Oh.” Sam laughed, shrugging at Gabriel with a smile. “I got the letter yesterday, I’ve been accepted into Stanford’s Ethics in Society undergrad program. After that I’m going to try and get into Law there, since Stanford doesn’t do Pre Law as an undergrad.”

 

Gabriel let out a small huff of surprise, his eyes going wide. “Well damn, looks like I’ve hooked myself a good and proper nerd.” He grinned, nudging Sam in the side. There was a layer of fondness in Gabriel’s voice that brought a blush to Sam’s cheeks, and Sam rolled his eyes.

 

“Dork.” He chuckled. “Come on, let’s get into the party before we go past fashionably late into missing the whole damn thing.”

 

“Yessir.” Gabriel grinned, giving a mock salute before sliding out of the car. Sam followed him out, and the pair of them walked towards the house side by side.

 

Walking up to the house Sam had expected something straight out of the movies: the loud, thumping music with the bass turned up to much that the sidewalk shook; he expected toilet paper scattered all over the lawn, red solo cups, maybe even a broken window or something. That was not what he got at all. Things were pretty quiet actually, and the lawn was way cleaner than he would have expected Ruby's lawn to look. He couldn't even hear any music at all, but when they were only a few feet away from the door Sam did hear some laughter coming from inside. He felt a smile spread over his face as he picked out the individual laughs of people he recognized, coming to a stop in front of the closed door. Was he supposed to knock? Or did you just go right inside at this sort of thing?

 

Thankfully Gabriel seemed to have some idea, and he just walked up to the front door, knocking confidently before stepping back to stand next to Sam.

 

"You brought money to pitch in for the booze, right?" Gabriel asked, turning to look at Sam.

 

"Wait, what? I had no idea, nobody-" Sam began, beginning to freak out, but Gabriel held up a hand to silence him.

 

"Don't worry about it, I'll cover you." Gabriel assured him with a smile, and Sam frowned.

 

"You sure?" He asked, and Gabriel waved his hand dismissively.

 

"Yeah, 'course. Anything to see what happens when you get smashed." Gabriel teased, earning an eyeroll from Sam.

 

Sam was about to say something, but the door was pulled open, revealing a very red faced Jessica.

 

“Oh, hey guys!” She grinned, a little more vibrantly than normal. “C’mon in, the party’s already started.”

 

Gabriel nodded, tugging Sam inside after Jess moved out of the way. “I hope you left some booze for the rest of us, Jess.” He teased, and Jessica giggled like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard.

 

“Of course, Gabe, we all remember what happened the last time we were out when you showed up.” Jessica laughed, smacking Gabriel weakly on the arm.

 

"Hey, it had been a long week. I needed to get smashed." Gabriel shrugged, and Jessica laughed again.

 

"Yeah yeah. Just get in here you two." She said, grabbing them both by their wrists and pulling them inside. Sam stumbled inside, but Gabriel managed to keep his movement fairly fluid. He closed the door behind him, shaking his head softly at Jessica.

 

"Everyone's in the living room, come join us whenever you want." Jessica explained, pulling them both into a tight hug for a moment before running off to join the rest of the group.

 

Gabriel toed his shoes off, setting them beside the door. He waited for Sam to do the same, Sam's giant shoes looking a little strange next to Gabriel's smaller ones.

 

"Come on." Gabriel said once Sam had straightened his shoes "Let's go find the rest of them."

 

Sam nodded, following after Gabriel down the same hallways Jessica had run down. The house they were in was kind of huge, he'd been able to tell that from the outside, but inside it almost felt even larger. Sam was pretty sure his entire house could fit on the first floor, and from the staircases he had passed their were clearly at least two more floors. This one wasn't exactly small either, they'd already passed by a bathroom and what seemed like a study just on their way to the living room. Eventually they got to the living room, and were greeted by the cheers of the rest of the cast.

 

There were various shouts of “Gabe!” and “Sam!”, and Charlie hopped up to pull first Sam and then Gabriel into a hug. Gabriel and Sam were each handed a shot, and Gabriel tossed his back right away, barely even flinching. Sam looked down at his shot glass, swirling it around for a moment before drinking it a little slower than he should have and he winced, trying his hardest not to gag at the taste. When Sam looked up Gabriel had already poured himself a second shot and he tossed it back as well before setting his shot glass down on the coffee table. Sam raised an eyebrow at Gabriel, setting his own glass down as well.

 

“Two already?” Sam asked, and Gabriel shrugged.

 

“It’s a party.” Gabriel said simply, making his way over to the couch. But before he could get there Charlie grabbed Gabriel’s arm, whispering something Sam couldn't quite make out into Gabriel’s ear. Gabriel blushed lightly and smacked Charlie on the shoulder with a glare.

 

“What, what did she say?” Sam frowned, and Charlie grinned, but Gabriel shook his head.

 

“Nothing important.” He promised with a pat on Sam’s shoulder. Sam’s frown deepened, and he was about to say something when Charlie interrupted him with a laugh.

 

“I just told him that the two of you showing up late together is a little suspicious.” Charlie interjected with a teasing grin, pushing Gabriel towards Sam. Gabriel stumbled, nearly crashing into the taller boy, but Sam caught him at the last second and gently pushed him back to a safe distance. Sam rolled his eyes, trying to cover up his embarrassment with a scoff and praying to whoever was listening that his blush wasn’t as deep as it felt like it was.

 

“Aw look, he’s blushing!” Garth laughed.

 

“It’s pretty adorable.” Ash, who managed the stage crew, nodded in agreement.

 

“As if anything like that would ever happen.” Sam grumbled in protest, shaking his head, and Charlie snorted at him.

 

“Oh really now.”

 

“Well, yeah.” Sam said, his blush deepening. Did he really have to talk about this? "I don't do one offs and Gabriel doesn't do relationships."

 

Charlie just stood there, raising an eyebrow skeptically at him while Gabriel blushed deeply in embarrassment next to Sam, whose complexion mirrored Gabriel's.

 

"Well he doesn't." Sam said defensively after the silence became too much to bear. "And anyways, I'm not his type."

 

"Look, you half-rate cupid, if I kiss him will you stop riding my ass?" Gabriel interrupted, beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol, his voice sharp with annoyance. Sam's eyebrows skyrocketed.

 

"What?" Sam managed to squeak out.

 

"I might." Charlie shrugged, ignoring Sam as a wicked grin spread over her face. "But Sam'll take over ass riding duties for me."

 

"What?!" Sam squeaked again, a little higher pitched this time.

 

"Oh shut up." Gabriel groaned, and Sam was about to ask if that had been directed towards him or Charlie when there was suddenly a pair of way-too-soft lips pressed against the corner of his, and his brain short circuited. Sam could feel a hand slide around the back of his neck to hold him in place, the callouses on Gabriel's fingertips from all the climbing he’d done recently rubbing up against the fine hairs on the nape of Sam’s neck. He didn't even have time to register what had happened before Gabriel's lips were suddenly gone, and Sam suddenly realized how empty it felt to have your own personal space.

 

"There, happy now?" Sam heard Gabriel say, and he used the sound to bring himself back to reality, opening eyes he hadn't realized he had closed.

 

Gabriel was standing a full foot away from Sam, his hands on his hips as he glared at Charlie, who looked like she was right on the edge of a laughing fit.

 

"Y-yeah, yeah that was great. You s-sure showed us." She snorted, barely holding back her laughter. Gabriel let out an annoyed huff, turning in place and stalking out of the room, his face glued to the floor. He pointedly ignored Sam's gaze as he left, his face bright red. Sam was left standing in the room, his mouth hanging agape.

 

As soon as Gabriel was out of sight Charlie burst out laughing, doubling over with the force of it. The rest of the room was awkwardly silent, exchanging glances with each other beneath the sound of Charlie’s laughter. Sam finally managed to catch up to reality, his face burning with embarrassment and a bit of shock. Gabriel had just kissed him. Fuck, Gabriel had actually kissed him. The guy he was in love with had kissed him on what was essentially a dare, and Sam kind of felt like he wanted to puke. His mind couldn’t stop replaying the feeling of Gabriel’s lips against his over and over again. It had been so damn close to what Sam actually wanted, close enough for him to know exactly what he was missing, but still far away enough that what Sam wanted was still out of reach. He brought his hand up to lightly ghost over his lips, still tingling slightly from the kiss.

 

Sam flinched when he felt a hand settle on his shoulder, relaxing slightly when he saw it was just Jessica. She smiled at him, her expression sympathetic and knowing at the same time. She held out a glass for him, and Sam noted in the back of his mind with some amusement that it was the stereotypical red solo cup.

 

“Rum and coke.” Jessica said in explanation, and Sam took the cup gratefully. He held it to his lips, glancing over at the hallway Gabriel had disappeared down. He gave a final sigh before taking a large chug, wincing and holding back a gag at the taste.

 

“That’s really alcoholic.” Sam coughed, shaking his head softly.

 

“Sorry.” Jess winced. “Want me to make you another one?”

 

“No, this is fine.” Sam said, glancing down at the cup and swirling the drink around in it. “I can deal.” He lifted the cup up again, taking a smaller sip this time. He could feel the burn of the alcohol down his throat, settling in his stomach and slowly starting to warm him from the inside out.

 

“Well are we all just going to sit here staring at our feet?” Ruby asked, finally breaking the silence. She stood up off the couch and walked over to Jessica, scanning the room. “Come on, if you’re not all wasted two hours from now I’m kicking you out.” There was a round of laughter from around the room, and the party picked back up in full force, leaving Sam standing awkwardly by the wall with his drink.

 

\- - - - -

 

Sam had never quite seen the appeal of fruity cocktails. Being raised with Dean meant that he was no stranger to things like scotch and whiskey, and Dean had always been vocal about the fact that if he wanted to drink he was going to drink something that tasted like booze, not something that looked like fairy jizz and tasted like gatorade. Dean was usually more insistent about that after a couple of glasses of booze that tasted strongly of alcohol, but that was another matter. But Sam had downed what felt like 12, but what was probably closer to 4 or 5, versions of fruit juice and soda mixed with whatever alcohol had been closest to him, and he did have to admit these cocktails had their merits. For one thing Sam doubted he'd have been able to drink this much as quickly as he had if he'd been drinking straight whiskey. Whiskey was great and all, but still, if he was gagging every time he took a sip and he had to concentrate on not projectile vomiting then it didn't exactly make for all that pleasant of a drinking experience. But these... These actually tasted damn good he thought to himself as he finished off the last of his Shirley Temple.

 

Oh god, Dean was so going to kill him if he knew he was at his first teenage house party with booze and he was drinking something as girly as a Shirley Temple.

 

Fuck it, these were damn good. Dean could go screw himself.

 

Maybe it was the vodka swimming through his system, but suddenly the mental image of Dean trying to figure out how fucking himself would physically work swam into his mind, and Sam was caught between wanting to laugh his ass off and vomit at the thought. He ended up letting out a noise that was halfway in between a snort and a hiccup, which made him sound a bit like a dying seal.

 

"Woah, you ok there Sam?" He heard someone say from beside him, and a hand came to rest on his shoulder. Sam burst into full on drunken laughter, doubling over at the waist. He couldn't quite tell who was standing next to him. Probably a white guy, he decided. Everyone here was a white guy, except for Charlie, but she was gay. Sam wasn't quite sure how that connection made sense, but to his drunken brain it just did.

 

The part of his brain that was still vaguely sober interjected that Jessica and Ruby weren't gay or men, but drunk Sam quickly told sober Sam to shut up.

 

The hand was still on his shoulder. Sam gave a noncommittal wave, taking a few deep breaths to bring his laughter back under control.

 

"Yeah, I'm fine." He promised who he was able to identify as Ash as he stood up. "Think'm gonna get another drink though." He hadn't actually thought through that sentence before he's said it, but as soon as he'd closed his mouth he decided that was a good idea and began to make his way towards the kitchen, Ash slipping out of his mind.

 

Sam was on cloud fucking nine. His head was a pleasant sort of fuzzy that made the world seem right for the first time in ages, and everything just seemed so much more... happy, he guessed was the best way to put it. So Gabriel had kissed him without kissing him for the reasons Sam wanted him to. So what! It was all in good fun, and he'd still gotten a kiss from Gabriel. One brief, shining moment that he was going to hold onto forever. And if he never got another kiss out of Gabriel for the rest of his life? Well then at least he had the one.

 

Satisfied with this conclusion Sam weaved his way into the kitchen, sliding past his classmates in what he was certain looked completely smooth, suave, and not drunk. (Was there a word for not drunk? Non Drunk? Fuck, he couldn’t remember.) The liquor bottles as well as the bottles of various sodas and fruit juices were all lined up on the counter, and Sam rain the tip of his finger along the lids, pursing his lips while he tried to decide what to make. Someone had been less than careful with the grenadine, and Sam managed to get a drop stuck on his finger. He stuck the finger tip in his mouth, sucking the drop off, and he heard someone clear their throat behind him. Sam spun around, leaving his finger in his mouth while he raised an eyebrow at the person who had interrupted him. He went a little pale when he realized who it was, immediately pulling the finger out of his mouth with a wet pop.

 

"From what I've seen you've had enough, kiddo." Gabriel chuckled, crossing his arms as he watched Sam. "From your less than graceful march in here I think you're pretty smashed already."

 

Sam probably should have felt a little ashamed, but instead all he felt was a wash of relief. He hadn't seen Gabriel since the boy had fled the room a few hours ago, and if he hadn't had Charlie to assure him that Gabriel was fine Sam probably would have worried that Gabriel had flat out left. But now Gabriel was here in front of him again, and Sam's face broke into a huge grin. In two big strides he had crossed the kitchen, wrapping his long arms around Gabriel and pulling him into a tight hug.

 

"Gabe!" He said, his voice almost a croon. "You're here."

 

Gabriel laughed, wrapping his arms around Sam and returning the hug eagerly. "Course I'm here, Samalambalamb. I'm paying for you to get smashed, I wasn't going to miss the big show."

 

Sam sighed happily in response, nuzzling his face into the top of Gabriel's head. He could smell the familiar scent of whiskey on Gabriel, and the scent was almost comforting somehow.

 

"We switched." Sam said simply, and he could feel Gabriel frown against his shoulder. "Drinks, I mean. I've been drinking that fruity shit you like, you've been drinkin whiskey."

 

Gabriel let out a small huff of surprise. "How did you... Wait, shit, forgot, I spilled some on my shirt earlier."

 

"Maybe you should have taken it off." Sam found himself saying, grinning against the top of Gabriel's head. "I wouldn't have minded."

 

Gabriel tensed in Sam's arms, and Sam immediately realized what he'd said.

 

"I mean, a wet shirt can't be fun. Not that you can't wear a wet shirt if you don't want to, I mean some people like being wet, maybe you like wet stuff too and ohmygodIneedtostoptalk-" Sam's ramble was cut off by a hand pressed against his mouth. He looked down at Gabriel, his eyes meeting shining golden ones.

 

"Yeah, you might want to quit while you're ahead." Gabriel grinned, holding Sam's gaze for a moment.

 

"Come on." Gabriel said a minute later, just as the unspoken words exchanged through the eye contact could force either one of them to make a move Sam was seriously considering making. He grabbed Sam’s arm, snatching up a clean cup on their way over to the sink. “You,” Gabriel continued, turning on the tap and sticking the cup under the stream of water. “Need to drink some water. I don’t want to have to deal with a super hungover Sam in the morning. I’m paying for the booze, I’m not dealing with the aftermath is I can avoid it.”

 

“Can you stop talking about buying me booze?” Sam winced, taking the up once Gabriel offered it to him. “It makes it sound like you’re my sugar daddy or something.”

 

Gabriel snorted. “Trust me, if I was your sugar daddy you would be dressed way better than you are. Layers of plaid do not do your chest justice.”

 

Sam rolled his eyes at Gabriel, unable to stop the blush that spread over his cheeks. Side effect of being drunk, he supposed. “Yeah, no, I so don’t need you as my sugar daddy. You’d look pretty bad in a pimp hat.”

 

“Sugar daddy and pimp aren’t the same thing.” Gabriel scolded. “Now shut up and drink your water.”

 

Sam stuck his tongue out at Gabriel, but did as he was told, draining the cup in one go. “Happy?” He asked, setting the cup down on the countertop. Gabriel sighed dramatically, draping himself over Sam. "Is anyone truly happy these days?" He asked, clenching his hands into fists and shaking his head solemnly.

 

"Oh my god." Sam groaned, covering his face with his hands. "You are such an annoying drunk."

 

"Yeah, but you love me anyways." Gabriel grinned, resting his chin on Sam's shoulder and looking up at him, batting his eyelashes alluringly.

 

"You wish." Sam snorted, pushing Gabriel off of him. "I think I need more alcohol if I'm going to have to keep dealing with you."

 

"Oooohhh." Gabriel moaned, putting the back of his hand on his forehead like a heroine in an old romance movie. (Sam was greeted with the brief mental image of Gabriel in a Regency Era gown, standing on some cliff overlooking the ocean while Gabriel watched his lover sail away on some financially necessary venture.) "You wound me Sam, wound me!"

 

"You're such a ham." Sam sighed, shaking his head as he picked up his cup, carrying it back over to the line of drinks. He scanned the line, deciding to go for a simple rum and coke again.

 

"Actually, I seem to remember someone telling me a few weeks ago that I'm the best actor in the school." Gabriel said from behind Sam, and Sam could practically hear the grin in Gabriel's voice. He felt Gabriel come up behind him, and a pair of arms slid around his waist, holding him tightly while Gabriel's forehead was pressed against Sam's back.

 

"Well whoever said that should get their eyes checked." Sam teased, filling his class partway full with coke and grabbing the rum bottle. Gabriel hummed noncommittally, nuzzling his face against Sam.

 

Sam really wished he could stop grinning like a fool, but Gabriel's arms just felt so damn nice around him, and Sam found himself relaxing against Gabriel. But his frown disappeared when he tipped the rum bottle downwards towards his cup and not a single drop came out.

 

"Damn." He grumbled, "Why is the rum always gone?" He'd already set the bottle down when the reference he'd made caught up to him. Sam snorted, shaking his head softly as he tried to find something else to put into his drink. His eyes settled on the vodka, and he shrugged, the movement earning him a grumble from Gabriel. Well, while it wasn't exactly the conventional choice, it would do. He screwed the top off the bottle, dumping a decent amount into the cup and swirling it around.

 

"You're sharing that with me." Gabriel mumbled into Sam's back.

 

"Says who?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

 

"Says me." Gabriel said decidedly, and that was that.

 

Sam sighed, putting the cap back on the vodka. "Come on then, your highness, let's go find a better place to hang out than in the kitchen." As much as Sam hated to do it he turned, pulling himself out of Gabriel's grip and heading towards the hallway, gesturing with his head for Gabriel to follow him.

 

"Hmm, your highness. I like it." Gabriel mused, following after Sam with a dopey grin, which quickly turned into a smirk. "But I think I'd prefer Sir, the implications behind it are just yummy." Gabriel chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows at Sam even though he knew Sam wouldn't be able to see.

 

"Yeah, why does it not surprise me you'd be into that stuff?" Sam scoffed, leading Gabriel down the hallway in almost a straight line.

 

"Oh you have no idea, Sammich." Gabriel chuckled, not even blinking in surprise when he walked past Garth having a serious heart to heart with Ruby's dog. "I've done some things that would make your pretty little head spin."

 

"Let's go upstairs." Sam said, deciding to ignore Gabriel's comment. "Should be quieter, and I kinda wanna sit down."

 

Gabriel made a small noise of agreement, and the two of them made their way up the staircase. They walked past an open door and paused outside of it.

 

"Bedroom." Sam said, and Gabriel nodded.

 

"Come on, it'll be quiet in there."

 

Sam followed Gabriel into the room, flicking the light on and closing the door behind them. Sam scanned the room a little awkwardly, trying to decide where to sit. There was the bed, of course, but that might be a little weird. But before he could make a decision Gabriel leaned against the wall, using the support to sink down to the floor.

 

"Sit." Gabriel said, the word coming out as more of a command than he meant it to. Sam walked over to the wall, sinking to the ground next to Gabriel. He took a sip of the drink, humming softly at the unusual taste before handing it to Gabriel. Gabriel took the glass from Sam, draining half of the glass in one go.

 

“Hey!” Sam frowned, but Gabriel rolled his eyes and handed Sam the glass back.

 

“Oh calm down, Princess, the rest is yours.” Gabriel said, resting his head on Sam’s shoulder.

 

“You’re kind of an asshole, you know that?” Sam asked, glancing down at Gabriel, who shrugged.

 

“It’s been said once or twice.” Gabriel admitted with a noncommittal shrug.

 

“You’re my asshole though, so I guess it’s ok.” Sam smiled, and Gabriel snorted.

 

“I’m your asshole. Seriously?” Gabriel asked, shaking his head at Sam.

 

“Ok, so maybe I didn’t think that one through.” Sam admitted, and the pair of them dissolved into a bout of laughter, leaning against each other as the sounds of the party seeped through the floor.

 

Their laughter died down naturally and gradually until the two of them were left sitting in a comfortable yet heavy silence, nestled up against one another. Sam sighed softly, letting his eyes slip shut.

 

Gabriel’s eyes fell shut as well, and he allowed himself to slide in a little closer to Sam, curling up against him. This was nice. Definitely one of the nicest moments of the evening by far, and he couldn’t bring himself to end it by talking. Sam was just way too comfy, both as a headrest and just as someone to be close too. Almost too comfy. And fuck, the guy’s lips needed to have songs written about them. Gabriel could still feel the ghost of Sam’s lips pressed against his, and it was driving him a little insane. He really needed to get his mind off of that ASAP, it really wasn't helping the whole "Getting over Sam" thing he really, really knew he should be trying to do. He was lucky Sam hadn't slapped him after the kiss. At least he had that tiny memory to hold on to, even though nothing else would come from this thing he had for Sam. To think anything else was fooling himself. That didn't mean he couldn't be greedy and take small moments like this whenever he could.

 

"What were you doing, by the way?" Sam asked, breaking through Gabriel's internal monologue. "After you ran off, I mean."

 

"Oh." Gabriel said, a little sad that his Moment was over. "Hid out in one of the bedrooms, talked to Charlie when she came by. Nothing all that special really." As if Gabriel was going to tell him he'd spent half an hour crying his eyes out; the whole 'close enough to reach for but too far away to touch' aspect of the kiss had been a bit too much for him. Yeah, Sam didn't need to know. "What did you do?"

 

"Just mingled, I guess." Sam shrugged, leaning the side of his head against the top of Gabriel's. "Talked to some people, played a few rounds of Never Have I Ever as a drinking game. Except the way Ruby plays it you drink for everything you haven't done, which meant I drank the most."

 

"Course you did, you goody two shoes." Gabriel smiled fondly down at the ground.

 

"Shut up." Sam rolled his eyes. "It's not my fault. I never really had a lot of friends before this show."

 

"Well then I'm glad to have pulled you out into the land of the normal people." Gabriel laughed, pulling back a bit so that he could look up at Sam. "Oh god." Gabriel said, his voice a little mortified. "I'm pretty sure that's the only time I'll ever call theatre kids normal people."

 

Sam snorted at that, shaking his head.

 

"Ok, yeah, so you guys aren't exactly normal." Sam admitted.

 

"Hey, it's _we_ 're not exactly normal. You're one of us now." Gabriel pointed out, leaning the side of his head against the wall while he looked at Sam. Sam did the same, setting the cup down behind him. The plaster of the wall was cool against his warm cheek, helping to keep him grounded.

 

“Not quite. The show hasn’t gone up yet.” Sam pointed out, and Gabriel waved his hand dismissively. “Technically I don’t think I count.”

 

“I’ve never really been one for technicalities.” Gabriel shrugged, inching in a little closer to Sam and holding his gaze.

 

“I don’t know, I would have thought the opposite was true.” Sam mused with a grin, sliding in a little closer to Gabriel as well. “You love to exploit Techni… Techna… Technicalities.”

 

“Alright, I only like technalidies when they’re in my favour.” Gabriel gave in, scooching in even closer to Sam. There were only a few inches in between them now, and neither one of them seemed eager to move away. They were just two drunk teenagers, sitting on the floor, leaning against a wall, grinning stupidly at each other with a look of both admiration and excitement. They were both panting slightly for no apparent reason, and Sam could feel Gabriel’s breath puffing against his face, could smell the alcohol on Gabriel’s breath mingling with the alcohol in his own. A familiar atmosphere crept into the room, and Sam was reminded of what he’d felt that day when Gabriel had taught him how to stand, and then again that day backstage, and then again the night before by the planetarium. That feeling he’d gotten where he’d been sure they were about to kiss, but one of them for whatever reason had pulled away, either too scared or not willing to close the space between them.

 

Well fuck that, Sam decided, and the next thing he knew he had surged forward, and he was kissing Gabriel a little sloppily, but hard and desperately and sweetly and tenderly and for once in his life Sam didn’t mind that his words didn’t always come out the way he wanted them to because this… This was everything he needed to say.

 

Sam wasn’t even sure if Gabriel would kiss him back, if he was being honest with himself. Hell, he could get himself slapped over this, or kicked in the balls, or excommunicated, Or.. Or…

 

Or kissed back.

 

Holy mother of fuck Gabriel was kissing him back. And not just a weak “I feel kind of bad for you so I’ll kiss you back” kiss, but a full on, hard, lip bruising kiss. Gabriel’s hands came up to cup Sam’s face, using that to pull Sam in closer. Sam was taken a bit aback by the sudden force, but as soon as he regained his senses he brought one of his own hands up to cup Gabriel's cheek, tilting his head until he found the perfect angle to be able to deepen the kiss. He couldn't stop himself from grinning against Gabriel's lips, and he could feel Gabriel grinning back.

 

He'd never really thought about how difficult it was to kiss and smile at the same time, but he was finding it a little difficult to make his lips do two things at once. Gabriel was clearly having the same issue, and every once in a while their lips would miss each other entirely. Sam's grin widened and widened each time his lips landed in the wrong place, trying to stop himself from laughing, but he couldn't hold it in when his lower lip landed on Gabriel's chin. Gabriel let out a snort, shaking his head softly.

 

"Sorry." Sam chuckled against Gabriel's lips, pecking him softly.

 

"S'okay, I'm not really doing much better." Gabriel admitted, his kiss landing on Sam's top lip.

 

"Here, here let me try again." Sam laughed. He slowly leaned in and purposefully pressed a kiss to the tip of Gabriel's nose.

 

"Sam, I think you missed." Gabriel scoffed, but Sam just shook his head.

 

"Just let me do it."

 

Sam kissed Gabriel's nose again and Gabriel sighed, letting Sam get on with whatever it was he was doing, unable to get rid of the blush that was creeping onto his face. Sam kissed the side of Gabriel's nose now, then on his cheek right next to his nose, then on Gabriel's cheek bone, slowly kissing his way downwards towards Gabriel's mouth. Gabriel's blush deepened when he realised what Sam was doing, unable to do anything but sit there and let Sam get on with it.

 

Eventually Sam made his way down and kissed the corner of his mouth. Sam pulled away, taking a moment to look at Gabriel. Gabriel's breath caught in his throat at the sight of Sam, his hair a little messed up, his cheeks flushed from the booze and maybe something else too, his lips already red and slightly swollen from the kissing, grinning at Gabriel like he’d both won the lottery and gotten caught sticking his hand in the candy jar. Gabriel opened his mouth, wanting to say something even though he didn’t know what he wanted to say, but before he could force anything out of his mouth Sam was leaning in again, so Gabriel shut his mouth and his eyes, preparing for the kiss.

 

It landed a full inch away from his mouth, and Gabriel could hear Sam snickering.

 

“Oh you little shit.” Gabriel growled, grabbing Sam by the sides of his face and tugging him in for a proper kiss. Sam smiled but he kissed Gabriel back, humming happily against his lips.

 

Things slowly started to blur a little bit for Sam after that. He had no idea where to put his hands, but he had been fairly certain that he’s at least started out with one on Gabriel’s arm and the other on his back. How they’d both managed to end up resting on Gabriel’s hips was beyond him. Gabriel’s hands had slid past Sam’s face, tangling their fingers in Sam’s hair as the two of them lost themselves in the kiss. Gabriel nipped at Sam’s lower lip, and Sam parted his lips eagerly, goosebumps rising on his skin as Gabriel’s tongue, hot and wet, slipped past his open lips and into his mouth. Sam ran his tongue along Gabriel’s, doing his best to give back everything that Gabriel was giving him, and without even realizing it he let out a breathy groan as Gabriel’s tongue flicked over the sensitive underside of Sam’s tongue. Fuck that was hot, apparently Gabriel’s oral fixation with all those lollipops the guy ate paid off, and now all Sam could think about was what that mouth and that tongue would feel like wrapped around his dick and oh god, these jeans were way too fucking tight.

 

Throwing all rational thinking out the window Sam tightened his grip on Gabriel’s hips, tugging the smaller guy into his lap. Gabriel let out a small huff of surprise but didn’t move away, instead settling into a more comfortable position in Sam’s lap, his knees on either side of Sam’s hips. Gabriel’s squirming didn’t exactly help Sam deal with his pants’ situation and he let out a small moan at the barely there friction. Gabriel clearly heard it though, and he broke the kiss so that he could grind down again, looking at Sam with a smirk. His eyes gleamed at the moan that ripped out of Sam, and within an instant Sam could feel Gabriel’s breath puffing against the shell of his ear, sending a small shiver of arousal down his spine.

 

“Like that?” Gabriel murmured, grinding his hips down again. All Sam could do was nod through a moan, his fingertips digging into Gabriel’s hips through the denim of Gabriel’s jeans.

 

“Thought you might.” Gabriel purred, beginning to grind down against Sam, picking up a steady rhythm.

 

“Gah…” Sam managed, his hips bucking up to meet Gabriel’s of their own accord, and Gabriel hissed.

 

“Fuck, Sammy, yeah, like that.” He breathed out. Sam did it again, the two of them letting out nearly identical moans, their hips picking up a stuttering rhythm as they grinded against each other.

 

Sam head flopped back to rest against the wall, his eyes falling shut and his mouth slipping open, breathing hard. Fuck, the two of them weren’t even out of their pants yet and this already felt way too good. His heart was hammering in his chest, his skin felt like it was on fire, and all he could do was sit here and grind desperately against Gabriel and take whatever he was given.

 

Sam felt a pair of lips trail sloppy, open mouthed kisses down his bared neck before making their way back up it again, almost as though Gabriel was searching for the right spot. Sam felt a moan rip its way out of him when Gabriels’ teeth scraped over his pulse point before latching on, rolling the skin there between his teeth in a way that had Sam reduced to a whimpering mess in seconds. Gabriel nipped and sucked what Sam could tell was going to be a dark hickey tomorrow, and christ that was stupidly hot. Gabriel was fucking marking him. Sam’s hips jerked up against Gabriel’s, his cock rubbing against Gabriel’s thigh through their jeans.

 

Sam could feel Gabriel’s hands in his hair and Gabriel’s teeth against his neck and _oh god_ Gabriel have a sharp little tug on his hair and that was totally not a whimper that he let out. But then Gabriel’s hands had left his hair and were cupping his face again, Gabriel grinding down insistently against him. Sam moaned softly, but forced himself to push Gabriel back slightly. Gabriel groaned in annoyance, frowning at Sam.

 

“What’s-”

 

“Can you do that again?” Sam interrupted, blushing lightly from embarrassment.

 

“Do what?” Gabriel asked, stroking his thumb lightly over the blush on Sam’s cheeks.

 

“The, uh, the hair thing.” Sam said, leaning slightly into Gabriel’s touch. Gabriel raised an eyebrow at him.

 

“You want me to pull you hair?” Gabriel asked, a grin slowly spreading over his face.

 

“Yeah, if, uh, if that’s ok with you?” Sam said with a hopeful smile, but Sam was quickly silenced with a fierce kiss and a sharp grind of Gabriel’s hips against his. Sam moaned, not entirely sure what this response meant, but fuck if he wasn’t going to go along with it. But then suddenly Gabriel’s hands were back in his hair and tugging on it gently, and Sam’s hips automatically bucked up into Gabriel’s.

 

“Fuck.” Sam breathed as Gabriel kissed his way down his neck again, picking a new spot to create a mark. He timed a nip to Sam’s neck with a tug of his hair, and Sam let out a stuttered cry, grinding up desperately against Gabriel. He gripped Gabriel’s hips tightly, pulling him down against him so that he could grind against him harder, and fuck oh fuck oh fuck he was going to last such an embarrassingly short amount of time here.

 

But god it _so_ wasn’t his fault everything was so fucking hot and it was Gabriel and the friction was so damn good. In the back of his mind he registered that Gabriel had stopped marking up his neck and had instead buried his face in Sam’s shoulder, grinding back down just as desperately as Sam was grinding against him.

 

“S-Sam…” Gabriel moaned breathlessly into his neck, and oh my god Gabriel sounded so goddamn wrecked that it was enough to push Sam over the edge, coming so hard he was dizzy. He all but collapsed against Gabriel, burying his face in Gabriel’s hair.

 

It took a full half minute before Sam realised that Gabriel was still frantically rocking down against him, letting out desperate whimpers and moans. Sam was still panting hard, but he did his best to tug Gabriel in closer, letting Gabriel rock against his hip faster and faster until Gabriel gave one last moan, and suddenly there was a second wet spot on Sam’s jeans.

 

The two of them sat there for a moment, melting against each other as they tried to catch their breath. Gabriel’s hands softly ran through Sam’s hair, and Sam leaned into the touch with a tired smile.

 

“I’m feeling kinda tired.” Sam admitted, nuzzling against Gabriel, who gave a small hum of agreement. “We, uh, we should maybe get to the bed this time.” Sam laughed, and Gabriel nodded, but made no movement to get up. Sam looked down at him for a moment, waiting for Gabriel to move. All Gabriel did was snuggle in closer to Sam, wrapping his arms around his neck. Sam sighed, shaking his head as he stood up, pulling Gabriel up with him, who groaned in annoyance.

 

“Shut up, you’ll thank me in the morning.” Sam chuckled, flicking off the light before leading Gabriel over to the bed. His legs were a little shaky, and he was still a little oversensitive, but it was nothing he couldn’t manage. All of that was completely blown out of the water by the giddiness setting over him. He sat down on the edge, pulling Gabriel down with him. “We should probably get out of our pants, or when this, uh, the stuff dries it’ll be really uncomfortable.” Gabriel nodded, and the two of them quickly slipped out of their pants before climbing under the covers. Sam wasn’t exactly sure what the plan was when it came to their sleeping situation, but that was rapidly answered when Gabriel wrapped his arms around Sam’s waist, nuzzling his face into Sam’s neck. Sam chuckled softly, smiling down at Gabriel.

 

“You’re kind of an octopus, you know that?” Sam teased, wrapping an arm around Gabriel’s shoulder and pulling him in close. Gabriel hummed, hooling one of his legs around Sam’s. Sam sighed happily, burying his face in Gabriel’s hair. “Goodnight.” Sam murmured, but Gabriel stayed silent. Sam sighed again, slowly letting himself fall off to sleep.

 

“I love you.” He heard Gabriel murmur, just as he was about to pass out. Sam smiled sleepily, pulling Gabriel in closer to him before he fell fully asleep.

 

When Sam woke up Gabriel was gone.

 

It was nine into the morning, his head was pounding, and Gabriel was nowhere to be seen. Sam rubbed his eyes tiredly, peeking his head out the door. He looked up and down the hallway, biting his lower lip. Ok, this was a little weird, but maybe Gabriel was just in the bathroom? He plodded down the hallway, and god these lights were bright. Maybe he should have drank some more water last night…

 

The door to the bathroom swung open.

 

“Gabriel.” Sam sighed in relief, running a hand through his hair. “Thank goodness, I thought you might have left.”

 

Jessica walked out of the bathroom, frowning at Sam.

 

“Uh, sorry Sam, Gabriel’s not here.” Jessica shrugged apologetically. Sam groaned in annoyance, leaning against the wall. Jessica’s hand settled on his shoulder.

 

“Sam? Is everything ok? It kind of seemed like you two hit it off last night…” She said, and Sam laughed bitterly.

 

“Yea, I kind of thought so too.” Sam sighed, looking down at the ground. Jessica bit her lip, leaning against the wall next to Sam.

 

“Call him.” She said after a minute, giving Sam’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’m sure he had a good reason for leaving.”

 

“Yeah, yeah I’ll call him.” Sam nodded. “As soon as I’m home I’ll call him.”

 

“Maybe you should change your underwear too…” Jessica winced, gesturing downwards. “And put some pants on.”

 

Sam glanced down at himself, blushing bright red when he remembered he was in just his shirt and his boxers.

 

“Yeah, I’ll, uh… I-I’ll go….” Sam stammered, dashing back down the hallway and into the bedroom. Call Gabriel. That all he had to do, put on pants and call Gabriel and all of this mess would sort itself out.

 

\- - - - -

 

“ _You’ve reached Gabriel Novak! Whatever it was I promise it wasn’t me. Ok, it probably was, but you’re not going to have any way to prove that it was. Please leave your confessions of love, your angry yelling, your pleas for my world-renowned advice, and your hilariously bad pickup lines after the beep._

 

…

 

 _Unless you’re Sam Winchester. Then leave me alone.”_ There was a loud beep and Sam swore, running his hand tiredly through his hair.

 

“Yeah, hi Gabriel, it’s me. Again. Could you please pick up the phone? No one’s heard from you since Friday night and after 2 days of talking to an answering machine I’m getting kind of tired of talking to an answering machine.” Sam sighed, pausing for a moment to bite his lip. “Look, whatever made you leave… It’s ok. I don’t blame you. You were drunk, you didn’t know what you were doing, or… Whatever. Just… Just call me? Please?” Sam was silent for another moment before he gave up and ended the call, hoping his voice didn’t sound quite as desperate over the phone as it did to his own ears.

 

“Fuck.” He said again, tossing his phone down on his bed. He ran his hands over his face, massaging his temples with his fingers in an attempt to get rid of his building headache. Dean was probably going to kill him when the phone bill for the month came in, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. It’s not like he was making long calls anyways, just a bunch of very short ones. Usually just long enough to leave a pleading voicemail before hanging up. But he couldn’t stop, even if he didn’t get anywhere with this. If Gabriel was even listening to the messages then it was worth it.

 

He just couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to do. Clearly Gabriel regretted what had happened last night, that much was clear. Gabriel had been drunk, neither of them had been thinking… It had been stupid. But Gabriel had said I love you. There was no denying that, as much as Sam had gone over and over the moment in his mind he couldn’t come to any other conclusion. He hadn’t misheard or anything, Gabriel had told him he loved him, and at the moment Gabriel at least thought he meant it. Fuck, all of this would probably have been easier if Gabriel hadn’t said it, at least then Sam could focus all of his efforts on pretending last night hadn’t happened. But after something like that? No, he couldn’t let this go, he just couldn’t.

 

Although really if he was being honest with himself he shouldn’t be surprised. As if Gabriel was actually interested in him for anything besides one night where they were both smashed as all hell. As if the guy who was good at everything was going to be interested in someone like him. In a guy who couldn’t even stand properly at the start of this. In a guy who was a little scared to step outside of his comfort zone. Hell, he had actually considered himself to be a pretty easygoing guy who was willing to try pretty much anything, but compared to Gabriel… Compared to Gabriel he was practically a stick in the mud. Why the hell would someone like Gabriel, who could snap his fingers and have pretty much anyone he wanted, want someone like him?

 

Sam heard a knock at the door, and he let out a groan, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling. “Go away, Dean, seriously! I’m fine.” He called out, but the door opened anyways.

 

“I’m not Dean, and I ‘seriously’ don’t believe you.”

 

Sam frowned, turning around to face the doorway.

 

“Jessica?” Sam frowned in confusion, recognizing the blonde standing by the door. "How did you..."

 

"Your brother let me in." Jessica explained. "Can I come in?"

 

"Uh, sure?" Sam nodded, doing a quick scan of his room. Shit, shit shit shit, his room was a mess. Alright, maybe not exactly a mess by most people's standards, but his shirt from yesterday was lying on the floor and there were papers lying all over his desk. At least he didn't have any underwear out in the open. He kicked the shirt under his bed with his foot. "Come sit down, I guess..."

 

"Thanks." She smiled, heading over to Sam's bed and sitting next to him.

 

"So..." Sam said a little awkwardly, drumming his fingertips on his thighs. "why are you... uh, here?"

 

"Well your brother told me to wait in the living room, but you weren't answering your phone." Jessica explained, her expression even, but when she was just met by a blank stare from Sam she broke. "Ok, ok, you want to know why I'm at your house." she laughed, and Sam nodded.

 

"Well yeah." Sam nodded. "It's not like I really get girls showing up in my room very often."

 

"Maybe that's because you never invite them up." Jessica teased, bumping her shoulder against Sam's. Sam scoffed at that, shaking his head.

 

"No, honestly Jess." He insisted. "Why are you here?"

 

"No one's heard from you since you left Ruby's yesterday." Jessica said, and Sam looked down at the ground. "We were all getting a little worried, Sam... Especially after what happened."

 

"Oh, great, so everyone knows huh?" Sam sighed, resting his face in his hands and propping his elbows up on his knees.

 

"Well no one's exactly surprised." Jessica admitted, and Sam felt Jessica's hand come rest on his back in a comforting gesture. "We all saw it coming from a mile away."

 

Sam gave a noncommittal grunt, not looking up. Jessica pursed her lips, gathering her thoughts before trying again.

 

“He cares about you, Sam.” She murmured, and Sam scoffed, finally looking up from his hands.

 

“Oh, yeah, sure, enough to sort of sleep with me but leave before I wake up.” Sam snapped, rolling his eyes. Jessica sighed and shook her head.

 

“You know he probably just freaked out. I’ve known Gabriel for years, Sam, and trust me: no matter how insecure you’re feeling about this he’s feeling it ten times more”

 

“He has no reason to.” Sam huffed, sliding back on his bed so that he could lean against the wall.

 

"The guy he was head over heels for slept with him while he was drunk." Jessica cut in, raising an eyebrow at Sam. "Gabriel's probably assumed that you were just drunk and thinking with your dick rather than your brain, and that you at least regret what happened."

 

"Why the hell would he assume that?" Sam frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.

 

"Wouldn't you?" Jessica asked simply, and Sam's mouth snapped shut as he tried to gather his thoughts.

 

"Well, yeah, ok, maybe I would." Sam admitted begrudgingly. "But I’d have good reason to! He was gone when I woke up, and now he won't talk to me."

 

"Look, Sam." Jessica sighed, sliding back as well so that she could sit next to him. "Knowing Gabriel his first thought right now is going to be that you only did what you did with him on Friday night because you were drunk. What exactly have you done to make him think that's not what happened?"

 

"He isn't giving me the chance to!" Sam insisted, sliding away from the wall and Jessica so that he could stand up. "I've been calling and calling but he won't pick up or answer any of my messages and-"

 

"Sam, please, you need to calm down." Jessica said quickly, standing up as well and putting a hand on Sam's arm to try and comfort him while Sam ran both of his hands through his hair.

 

"And maybe he won't talk to me again at all, and this is just going to be it and I won't even be able to be his friend and we'll do this fucking show and he'll avoid me for the rest of the year and we'll graduate and he'll move off to some drama school across the country and I'll never see him again and I-" Sam heard more than felt his voice break. He didn't protest when Jessica pulled him in close. He rested his head on Jessica's shoulder, his eyes falling shut as he took a few deep breaths, letting Jessica's slow strokes down his back calm him down.

 

"I can't lose him." Sam managed to mumble into Jessica's shoulder, his arms hanging loosely by his sides.

 

"Have you tried telling him that?" Jessica asked, still stroking Sam's back.

 

"I-"

 

"Not over the phone?" Jessica interrupted, and Sam fell silent.

 

"How else am I supposed to tell him?" Sam asked quietly a moment later, and Jessica shook her head.

 

"Boys, I swear. You don't know how to do anything." She chuckled, and Sam gave an indignant cry of 'hey', which Jessica ignored. "Talk to him in person, dumbass."

 

"Yeah." Sam snorted, standing up and getting his personal space back. "As if he's going to let me in."

 

Jessica reached up and wiped away a tear Sam hadn't realized he'd shed.

 

"Tomorrow." Jessica said, slipping her hands into her pockets. "Before the show. Tell him how you feel."

 

"And if he won't see me?" Sam asked, a little skeptical.

 

"Corner him in the dressing room or something." Jessica shrugged. "Do something to shock him a little so that he won't just run away, and then just talk to him."

 

“And… And if he turns me down?” Sam asked hesitantly, biting his lower lip.

 

“He won’t.” Jessica promised.

 

"Yeah, but if he does." Sam insisted. "There's still a big chance he will."

 

"Sam, he's already told you he loves you. He's not going to say no." Jessica smiled at him, patting his shoulder.

 

"And then he ignored me for a day and a half." Sam pointed out, shaking his head. "I'm not going into this without planning for all the possible angles."

 

"If he says no it'll be because he's scared." Jessica said with conviction, sitting down on the edge of Sam's bed again. "So you just have to find a way to make sure he's not afraid."

 

"Afraid?" Sam frowned. "Why the hell would he be afraid?"

 

"God Almighty, someone please give men a brain." Jessica groaned, running her hand over her face. "Gabriel doesn't normally do relationships, ok?"

 

"Uh, no, he's gone out with tons of people." Sam shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. "I should know, I asked."

 

"You asked? That's actually kind of cute..." Jessica smiled, but a look from Sam shut her up. "Look, Gabriel's slept with a lot of people. He's actually dated next to no one. I'm pretty sure he's got some sort of thing against trusting people."

 

"That's ridiculous. He's never been like that with me." Sam said, sitting down next to Jessica. "Or with any of you."

 

"Sam, I told you, I've been friends with him for years." Jessica said. "It took me, and pretty much everyone else in the class, ages to actually get Gabriel to open up to us. He probably wouldn't have done that at all, really, if we didn't have the plays to bring us closer."

 

"Well he's never been like that around me." Sam said defensively, although what Jessica was saying did seem to make some sense.

 

"That's how I knew there was something going on between you two." Jessica admitted. "Aside from just Gabriel thinking you were hot, I mean. I've never seen him open up to someone so fast."

 

"Really?" Sam said hesitantly, and Jessica nodded.

 

"Oh yeah." She smiled. "Trust me, he's been hooked on you since day one."

 

"Well, if he's apparently so hooked on me, why didn't he say something sooner?" Sam frowned, not quite sure if he was more flattered that apparently he was something special to Gabriel, or pissed off that he hadn't noticed.

 

"He's scared." Jessica reminded him. "If Gabriel is this attached to you he's not going to be in any hurry to lose you."

 

"He wouldn't lose me." Sam huffed, almost a little offended at the thought.

 

"And how's he supposed to know that?" Jessica asked, raising an eyebrow at Sam. "For all he knows you could have freaked out. Why didn't you ask him out then?"

 

"Because I assumed he would say no..." Sam said, looking down at his lap. "I didn't really think he would ever be interested in someone like me."

 

Jessica smiled sadly at him.

 

"Trust me, he is. You really are a great guy, Sam." She promised, putting a hand on Sam's shoulder tenderly. Sam looked down at the hand, then back up to Jessica's face.

 

“Look…” Sam said a little hesitantly, drawing away from Jessica a little bit. “Jess, I mean you’re awesome, but I don’t…”

 

“Oh my god.” Jessica’s eyes widened in surprise, interrupting Sam. “No! No, no no, Oh my god, Sam I’m not interested. Not that you’re not a great guy and all, but I just couldn’t imagine you and me dating going all that well.”

 

“Oh thank goodness.” Sam sighed in relief, instantly relaxing. “Sorry.”

 

“Should I be offended at how relieved you sound?” Jess teased, shaking her head. “Anyways, even if I didn’t think things would go down in flames I’m kind of taken.”

 

“Wait, huh?” Sam frowned, his brow furrowing in confusion. “Since when?”

 

“A week and a half ago.” Jessica smiled, looking down at her lap.

 

“So who’s the lucky guy?” Sam asked, shaking his head in wonder. Wow, clearly his head had been detached and shoved up his ass.

 

“Girl.” Jessica corrected. “Check your heteronormativity.” She grinned, smacking his shoulder playfully.

 

“Sorry, sorry!” Sam flinched, raising his hands in surrender.

 

“You’d better be.” Jessica chuckled.

 

“Ok, so who’s the lucky girl then?” Sam amended.

 

“Better.” She smiled, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s, uh, it’s Ruby actually.”

 

“Ruby?” Sam repeated, a little taken aback. “Wait, seriously?”

 

“Yeah, I know, It’s not something I was exactly expecting to happen.” Jessica admitted, rubbing her arm awkwardly. “But Ruby’s actually really sweet. She’s there for me when I need her to be, she’s funny, she’s protective but not overbearing… I don’t know. She always seems to be exactly what I need when I need it.”

 

Sam shook his head softly at Jessica, letting out a small huff of wonder.

 

“Huh.” He said simply. “Well I can’t say I expected that, but if you’re happy then I’m happy for you.”

 

“Awe, well thanks Sam.” Jessica grinned up at him, leaning her head on Sam’s shoulder. “And I’m glad you’re happy, but even if you weren’t it wouldn’t change jack shit, I’d still go out with her.” She teased, and Sam rolled his eyes.

 

“Ok, ok, good point.” He laughed, leaning his head against Jessica’s. The two of them sighed in unison, and then they were both silent for a moment, relaxing in each others’ company.

 

“Hey, Jess?” Sam asked after a while.

 

“Mhmm?” Jessica replied, looking up at him.

 

“You honestly think he’ll say yes if I ask him out?”

 

Jessica nodded, sitting up properly so that she could look at him. “I do.” She promised. “But if you’re really worried you can always try going big. Do something romantic. Prove to him that you care.”

 

“Ok.” Sam nodded, pursing his lips while he let the idea mull over in his mind.

 

A shrill series of beeps rang out through the room and Jessica jumped, reaching for her phone. She looked at the screen, wincing when she saw the message there.

 

“Shit, sorry, I’ve got to go.” She said to Sam with an apologetic smile before replying to the text, getting up off the bed. “I promised I’d meet Ruby back at my place ten minutes ago.”

 

“It’s ok.” Sam promised, standing up as well and sliding his hands into his back pockets. “But hey, seriously, thanks for coming. You were a huge help.”

 

“Hey, I couldn’t let you sit around and mope.” Jessica grinned, slipping her phone in her pocket. “I still need you to be my husband tomorrow night.”

 

“Right, yeah, I guess you do.” Sam chuckled.

 

Jessica’s phone beeped again and she swore. “Shit, I really gotta go. See you tomorrow! And remember what I said!” She called, giving him a quick wave before dashing out of his room.

 

“Bye.” Sam said to the empty air she’d left behind, shaking his head with a smile as he headed back over to his bed. He picked up his phone, unable to hold back a sigh when he saw he had no new messages. He flopped down on the bed, slipping his phone back into his pocket and running his hands over his face. Fuck. He had to think of something. Something to impress Gabriel. Something to prove that he cared, that he wanted Gabriel and that he wanted to stick around. But he had absolutely no idea how to do it. What could he do for Gabriel, what could he do for Gabriel…

 

Oh.

 

_Oh._

 

Of course! It might be a bit late, but if luck was on his side and if he hurried…

 

Sam scrambled to pull his phone out of his pocket, his hands shaking as he hurried to find the number he was looking for.

 

\- - - - -

 

“Does anyone have a bobby pin?”

 

“Ok, who took the curling iron?”

 

“Where the hell is my prop, guys, seriously, I need it for the opening scene!”

 

“Can I get Titania on stage to do a lighting check?”

 

“Does anyone want to run lines?”

 

“I think this seam ripped!”

 

“I am so fucking tired, you’re going to need to poke me during the sleeping scene or I’m going to actually pass out.”

 

“Wait, wait are we doing the whole human forest thing in scene 8?”

 

“No, we cut that at tech. Which you’d know, if you’d been there!”

 

“I had work!”

 

“Fuck, I don’t think I can kiss you in front of my mom!”

 

“I think I’m gonna puke.”

 

“Who stole my coffee?!”

 

“Has anyone seen Gabriel?”

 

Sam slipped out into the hallway, closing the door that led backstage behind him and managing to trap in some of the noise. This was absolutely insane. He’d thought that rehearsals had been crazy, but holy shit, they couldn’t even hold a candle to opening night. Backstage was a rush of thirty frantic teenagers scrambling to get in costume and put makeup on in cramped spaces, and Sam was a little surprised that so far only one person had cried. They were all way too high on caffeine, nerves, and adrenaline, and if they all came out of this in one piece it would probably be because of some divine intervention. Every person in the room seemed to be right on the edge of a panic attack, and fuck, he had no idea how they were going to pull this off.

 

And there was the added fact that Gabriel wasn’t actually here yet. The show started at 7:00pm, and because it was opening night they had an early call time of 5:30, but now it was already five minutes to six and Gabriel still hadn’t shown up. Sam was beyond worried, where the hell would they be if Gabriel didn’t come? This was a high school play, they didn’t have understudies! And Puck wasn’t exactly a minor character either, so if Gabriel didn’t show up they were all screwed. Jessica didn’t seem to be worried.

 

“He’ll be here.” She had promised him when Sam had brought it up for the second time.

 

Sam, on the other hand, wasn't so sure. Gabriel still hadn't returned any of his texts or calls, maybe he was upset enough to miss the show.

 

Ha, no, that was ridiculous. This was pretty much what Gabriel lived for, Sam wouldn't put it past him to show up after breaking his leg. A guy who had yelled at people about professionalism wasn't going to miss the show over something like this... Would he? And if he did the resulting disaster wouldn't be entirely Sam's fault, would it?

 

But Sam definitely wouldn't put it past Gabriel to avoid him the entire show. He doubted that Gabriel would let it affect his performance, but Sam didn't know if he would be able to deal with the cold shoulder he would undoubtedly receive backstage. Not to mention that if Gabriel didn't turn up with a reasonable enough amount of time before the show started Sam wouldn't be able to pull off his plan...

 

"Hey, Sam?" He heard from behind him, and he turned around to face the door that lead backstage. Charlie was leaning through the open door, gesturing for him to come back in.

 

"Chuck wants to give a speech before the show starts, you've gotta come in." She explained. Sam nodded, following her back inside.

 

"Is he here yet?" Sam asked, looking over at Charlie as she led him towards the stage, where the cast was already standing in a circle.

 

"Yup." Charlie nodded, popping the P. She gestured towards the circle, and Sam caught sight of Gabriel standing on the far side, next to Garth. He gave an internal sigh of relief, shooting Charlie a small smile of thanks. She patted him on the back, going over to stand next to Chuck while Sam wormed his way into the circle next to Jessica.

 

"Hey." Jess murmured, smiling softly at him, and Sam smiled back before turning his attention to Chuck.

 

"Well." Chuck began, scanning the circle with a nervous smile. "Well, here we are. We made it!"

 

There was a round of cheers from the circle, and Sam clapped softly. Chuck silenced them with a few waves of his hands.

 

"I know that this hasn't been easy for any of us. We've had a hell of a lot of bumps in the road-" There was some nervous laughter from the cast. "And we had some issues with people not showing up..."

 

"Hey, I told you I had work!" Victor interrupted, but Chuck silenced him with a look.

 

"BUT." He continued "We're still all here. And I know that we all worked our asses off to get here." There were more cheers from the group, and Sam found him cheering with them. Sam's eyes found Gabriel. Gabriel's face was blank and tired looking, some light circles having formed under his eyes. Gabriel didn't cheer, just clapped quietly, and Sam felt a twinge of guilt in his gut.

 

"I want you all to know that no matter what happens tonight that am so happy that I got to work with all of you." Chuck said, smiling sappily at each of them in turn. "And.. And I'm so proud of each and every one of you. I need you all to know what. No matter how the show turns out tonight I want you to remember how proud-" Chuck's voice broke, and he paused, taking a moment to look around the circle. His eyes were a little misty, and Sam could swear he saw a tear pooling in the corner of one of Chuck's eyes. Gabriel patted Chuck on the back, who quickly composed himself.

 

"Sorry." He said, rubbing the back of his neck with embarrassment. He cleared his throat, taking a deep breath before continuing. "It's not everyday you get to work with a cast of kids as great as this, and while at the start I kind of wanted to kill some of you-" Sam felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment, even though Chuck wasn't looking directly at him. "You've all grown so much not just as actors, but as people too, and there's no one I would rather be standing on this stage with right now." Chuck smiled, and everyone smiled back at him.

 

"Let's hear it for Chuck!" Jess called out from beside him, and the cast erupted into cheers, clapping and stomping their feet in a deafening roar of glee, and Sam felt his heart squeeze happily. Damn, they really did feel like a family at this point. He didn't even want to think about what it would be like after the show ended.

 

"Alright, alright!" Chuck laughed, shaking his head through a grin. "Come on, it's-" Chuck paused to check his watch. "6:04, the show starts in just under an hour! Go get ready!"

 

The circle slowly started to disperse, kids running off to various places to get ready. Sam saw Gabriel make a quick turn, heading directly towards stage left. There was a door there that led to the hallway, right next to the room that they were using as a guy's changing room. There were no actual rooms attached to the auditorium or backstage area that they could use as a dressing room, curse of the public school budget, so they had turned one of the neighboring classrooms into temporary change rooms for the actors to put their costumes and makeup on. Most people had already gotten dressed, which would mean that Gabriel would be the only one in the room, which suited Sam's needs just fine. It would be nicer to do this in private anyways. Sam followed Gabriel out of the auditorium, leaving a safe distance between them so that he would hopefully remain unnoticed. Once they were both in the classroom Sam pulled the door shut behind himself, clearing his throat so that Gabriel would know he was there.

 

"Hey." He said, lingering awkwardly by the doorway. Gabriel had his back to Sam, rifling through the costume rack, and didn't bother turning around.

 

"Hey." Gabriel said back, not even bothering to look up. Sam bit his lip, trying to decide what the best way to proceed would be.

 

"I, uh... I tried to call?" Sam said after a minute of extremely uncomfortable silence. Gabriel gave a small grunt of acknowledgement, but didn't say anything more.

 

"You never called me back." Sam continued after it was clear he wasn't getting anything else out of Gabriel .

 

"Yeah." Gabriel said simply, pulling his costume off the rack. He carried it over to one of the mirrors, still avoiding Sam's eyes.

 

"Can... Can you tell me why?"

 

Gabriel let out an annoyed groan, setting his costume down on a table next to a mirror that was set up against a wall.

 

"Look." Gabriel said harshly, turning to face Sam finally. "If I wanted to talk to you I would have called you back. So just get your costume and _get out_." Gabriel's voice was cold, and his eyes were narrowed into slits. Sam couldn't help but flinch.

 

"I can't." He insisted, taking a tentative step towards Gabriel, who narrowed his eyes even more at Sam. "I really need to talk to you, Gabriel, I can't just let something like that happen and then not talk about it."

 

"There's nothing _to_ talk about!" Gabriel exclaimed in exasperation, throwing his hands up in the air.

 

"Yes, there is." Sam said firmly, though every instinct he had was telling him to run out the door as quickly as he could. But fuck, he couldn't back away from this without at least having a conversation with Gabriel. "Look, I'm not mad at you, ok?"

 

"Not like I'd care if you were." Gabriel grumbled under his breath, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked down at the floor, and despite his words some of the tension in his shoulders disappeared.

 

"Right..." Sam said hesitantly, biting his lower lip. "Are you mad at me then?"

 

Gabriel looked up at Sam and sighed, shaking his head softly. Fuck, the kid looked downright defeated. His heart broke a little at the sight, but he couldn't back down now. It would be better for everyone if he kept his own personal feelings out of this and focused on resolving the situation. Sam didn't feel the same way about him, that much was obvious. The kid just wanted to say that he didn't blame Gabriel for what had happened on Friday night, that it had been good or whatever, but it was best if they stayed friends. And Gabriel didn't blame him for it, not at all. Sam... Sam was so beyond him in every possible way. Sam was smart, Sam was kind, Sam wasn't emotionally constipated, Sam... Sam wasn't scared. The very fact that he was here and trying to have this conversation proved that between "fight or flight", Sam hit "Fight" right on the nose. But Gabriel... Yeah, no, he had always been good at running away, and Sam just needed to shut the fuck up and let him before things got any worse than they already were.

 

But fuck, Sam was looking at him like a kicked puppy, and there was no way that Gabriel could deny him anything when the guy looked at him like that.

 

"No, no I'm not mad at you." Gabriel sighed, deflating even further. He ran one hand through his hair before stuffing both of his hands into his pockets.

 

"Then please can you tell me what's going on?" Sam said, practically begging. Gabriel wasn't sure exactly how it had happened, but Sam was suddenly right in front of him and the weight of one of Sam's hands came to rest on Gabriel's shoulder in what was clearly meant to be a comforting gesture, but Gabriel couldn't stop himself from flinching.

 

"Can we not talk about this? Please?" Gabriel asked, shaking his head softly, looking at the floor.

 

"Gabe." Sam said sadly, crouching down a little so that he could force himself into Gabriel's line of sight. "Please. Just talk to me."

 

"And if I don't want to?" Gabriel asked, a note of exasperation in his voice. He wanted to crawl under a table and hide, or at the very least shake off Sam’s hand, but he couldn't bring himself to move away at all.

 

Sam was silent for a moment, and Gabriel could practically see the gears whirring in Sam's head.

 

"Please." Sam said simply, and Gabriel bit his lip, closing his eyes for a moment. He gave a resigned sigh before opening his eyes again, meeting Sam's gaze.

 

"I don't even know what you want me to talk about..." He whined, but it was a half hearted protest.

 

"You could start with why you didn't return my calls?" Sam suggested, finally taking his hand off of Gabriel's shoulder. Gabriel sighed again, taking a few steps back so that he could lean against the wall.

 

"Because I didn't want to talk to you, I figured that much was pretty obvious." Gabriel grumbled, and Sam gave a sad sort of smile.

 

"Well yeah, I guess, but why didn't you want to talk to me? Whatever you had to say I could have taken it." Sam said, crossing his arms as Gabriel laughed bitterly.

 

"Yeah, because I'm so fucking good at talking out my problems." Gabriel said, and Sam bit his lip.

 

"I just want to know where we're at, you know, you and me." Sam said, gesturing between the two of them to try and elaborate on his point. Gabriel groaned inwardly, closing his eyes for a moment to try and get away from this situation for a moment. Well, here it comes. The whole ‘I like you, Gabriel, but just as a friend’ talk that he was oh-so-familiar with. Hell, maybe it would be the thing that Gabriel was saddled with even more often, the "I think you're hot, let's fuck but stay casual about it" phrase. He couldn't quite decide which one would hurt more, and he so fucking didn't need to hear this right before the goddamn show, he didn't have the energy or the emotional breathing room to deal with this right now.

 

"Where we're at." Gabriel repeated, his voice breaking slightly. He forced his eyes open, looking anywhere but Sam. "Right, isn't that just the question."

 

"Well, yeah, it kind of is..." Sam said, shuffling his feet a little awkwardly. "I'm fine with whatever you want, by the way. As long as I don't have to lose you, whatever you want with me is fine."

 

Gabriel laughed again, a sad sort of laugh, and his voice broke halfway through. He ran a hand over his face, trying to bite back the tears that were prickling at the corners of his eyes. Of course, of course this was where he had landed up. The whatever you want to do that didn't actually mean whatever he wanted. What Gabriel wanted was for Sam to want him. He wanted Sam to sweep him off his feet and run away with him to some tiny French villa and cuddle with him for about three years straight and kiss and fuck and love each other without having to worry about Tisch or graduating or life or his fucking asshole brothers or disappointing anyone or not being good enough…

 

But that wasn’t going to happen, and it never was going to happen. Hell, it was better if it didn't happen. Sam would be so much happier with Jess, the thought of forcing Sam to get stuck with someone like him was a little nauseating. All Gabriel would end up doing would be dragging Sam down. Sam was a guy with infinite possibilities, and Gabriel was pretty much destined to end up homeless and jobless. Who was going to want to cast someone like him? He was nowhere near an amazing actor, just halfway decent, and he looked like a potato next to someone like Sam.

 

And even if Sam decided he didn't care about any of that then ok, fine, maybe Sam would stick around for a while. But then soon enough, just like everyone else, Sam would get tired of him and Gabriel would be kicked to the curb, already yesterday's news, that boyfriend that Sam would mention in passing, always prefacing mentions of him with "I was young and stupid and kind of horny, so I dated this guy who...", and then Sam would go on to tell the story about some stupid crap that Gabriel had pulled, go on about how embarrassing Gabriel was. Sam was a good guy, so he of course wouldn't mention Gabriel by name, but even so all his stories would be met with sympathetic sighs and shaking heads, all of them feeling a little sorry that Sam had wasted his time on a deadbeat loser like Gabriel. And Sam would get married to someone like Jess, maybe a model who was also in Mensa or the first female president of the United States.

 

He was so damn tired of wanting people he was never going to get. For once in his fucking life, God, could he please find someone who just fucking wanted him instead of this unrequited shit he was always, always saddled with? It was easier just to run away, he reminded himself with a bitter laugh. If he ran he didn't have to deal with the look on peoples' faces when they realized he'd let them down again, or watch someone slowly get more and more tired of him until he was inevitably left on his own. If he chose to be alone then people couldn't hurt him by leaving, because that's the way he wanted things to be anyways.

 

Gabriel hadn't realized he had started crying until he felt Sam's hands settle on his shoulders again, both hands this time.

 

"Gabe" Sam asked hesitantly, crouching down so that his face could be at the same level as Gabriel's.

 

Gabriel shook his head, unable to stop himself from crying even harder and not physically capable of speaking in between his sobs. He felt Sam draw him into a hug, and all he could do was rest his head on Sam's chest, taking whatever comfort he could in being physically close to him. If this was the best he could get then he would take advantage of it until it physically broke him to do so.

 

"Gabe, please, please just talk to me." Sam begged, using his thumbs to wipe away some of Gabriel’s tears, but they were quickly replaced by new ones. Gabriel let out a choked sob, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth, as if that could hold the sobs in.

 

"I-I..." Gabriel managed to choke out, and Sam just hugged him tighter, riding out Gabriel's sobs until Gabriel was able to calm down a little bit. He ran a hand through Gabriel's hair, not letting go of him. Gabriel gave a few hiccuping sobs, staining Sam's shirt with tears. Fuck, of course, he even had to fuck this up. Not only could he not pull himself together but now he was messing up Sam's things as well. They didn't have time for this, the show was starting in less than an hour.

 

"Shh, it's ok, I'm here, ok? I'm not going anywhere." Sam promised, burying his face in Gabriel's hair. Gabriel let out another sob, trying his best to pull himself together. "Just breathe." Sam said soothingly. Gabriel immediately did as he was told, taking a deep, slow breath. It was almost funny how much it helped, how something as simple as being reminded to breathe brought him back on track. Fuck, apparently he was such an idiot he couldn't even remember to breathe.

 

Eventually Gabriel managed to calm down enough that he stopped shaking, and though the tears hadn't stopped he had at least stopped sobbing. Sam kept holding him, his hand continuing to stroke Gabriel's hair.

 

"Feeling a bit better?" Sam asked, and Gabriel nodded silently. "I'm glad." Sam said with a smile, giving Gabriel a squeeze. "Do... Do you want me to let go?"

 

Gabriel knew that the smart answer was yes, but he needed to be selfish for a moment. Gabriel shook his head.

 

"Ok." Sam nodded, resting his chin on Gabriel's head. Gabriel finally moved his arms, which had been hanging limply at his sides, and hugged Sam back gently, nuzzling his face into Sam's chest. A few minutes later Gabriel began to feel a little better, and he knew that he really, really couldn't put this conversation off any more. He pulled away from Sam, who let go of him as soon as he felt Gabriel begin to pull away.

 

"Are you ok?" Sam asked, and Gabriel laughed, shaking his head softly.

 

"Never really ok, kiddo..." Gabriel sighed, shoving his hands loosely into his pockets and looking at Sam's feet. "You still want me to talk?"

 

"If that's ok." Sam nodded, smiling tentatively at Gabriel.

 

“I just don’t really know what there is to talk about.” Gabriel explained with a dismissive shrug.

 

“You can start with why you didn’t reply to any of my messages.” Sam suggested. Gabriel didn’t even have it in him to wince.

 

“Well, uh…” Gabriel began, clearing his throat. He shuffled his feet, hoping to delay this as much as he could. “Kinda wanted to avoid having this conversation.”

 

This time it was Sam’s turn to wince.

 

“Look, Gabriel, whatever you want to tell me I promise it won’t hurt my feelings.” Sam assured him, biting the inside of his cheek. “I get that-”

 

“Oh awesome, he gets it!” Gabriel laughed bitterly, shaking his head angrily and looking up at the ceiling. “Thank god, I’m so glad he gets it.”

 

Sam frowned, taking a tiny step away from Gabriel. “Gabriel, come on, I-”

 

“So first you want me to talk and now you’re not even going to let me say the things I want to?” Gabriel snapped, glaring at Sam. Sam went silent, biting his lower lip. “Better.” Gabriel nodded, his face harsh and mocking. “Look, Sam,” He said, spitting out Sam’s name as though it left a bad taste in his mouth. “You don’t get it, ok? You’re the school’s golden boy, you don’t know what it’s like to be in my shoes. For fuck’s sake, all it would take to get anyone in this goddamn school to fall for you is for you to smile at them.”

 

“I don’t-” Sam tried to say, but Gabriel laughed, interrupting him.

 

“Don’t you dare say it isn’t true!” He shook his head a little incredulously. “You’re this fucking ball of sunshine that some god with a crappy sense of humour picked up and made into a person to torment me.”

 

Sam flinched, shutting his eyes for a moment. When he opened them they were full of hurt, and Gabriel felt something twist in his stomach, but he ignored it. This was for the best, he had to remind himself. Maybe this would convince Sam to leave him alone.

 

“Gabriel…” Sam said, and there was no ignoring the hurt in his voice, but Gabriel plowed on anyways.

 

“Who do you think you are, anyways?” Gabriel asked, raising an eyebrow at Sam. “You think you can just waltz in here, insist that I tell you why I’m not talking to you. This is _my_ drama program. You got that, Winchester? You’re here because I wanted you to be. You can only act the way you do because I taught you how. You would be nowhere if it wasn’t for me! So don’t you dare march in here and try to pretend that you’re better than me.” Gabriel sneered. Sam took another step back, Gabriel’s words hitting him like a punch to the gut. Gabriel’s expression faltered for a moment, but he quickly slipped back into character. He had to be cruel if he wanted to get anywhere with this, even if it was making him a little sick to his stomach.

 

“I don’t think I’m better than you.” Sam mumbled, his gaze sliding down to the floor. Gabriel felt a rush of power surge through him, Sam’s submission a bit of an ego boost. His skin began to feel a little uncomfortable, and in the back of his mind he was screaming at himself for daring to treat Sam like this.

 

“Did you ever consider that maybe I didn’t call you because I didn’t want to talk to you?” Gabriel asked, taking an almost predatory step towards Sam, his head cocked to the side. “I made out with you at a party. I was drunk off my ass, it doesn’t have to mean anything. It didn’t mean anything.” Gabriel said, the lie heavy on his tongue. “This isn’t some eighties movie, Sam. Just because the dorky theatre kid made out with the popular guy at a party doesn’t mean this is some John Hughes movie. Sorry to break it to you kid, but we’re not driving off together on a lawnmower. That kiss meant nothing to me, and you’re not going to push me down by pulling that whole ‘I like you, but only as a friend.’ crap, and I’m not going to be your fuck buddy.”

 

Something about what Gabriel said seemed to break through to Sam, who suddenly snapped. Sam tore his eyes away from the floor, meeting Gabriel’s gaze.

 

“Ok, first of all, I’m not popular.” Sam said, trying to hold in his anger. Gabriel scoffed.

 

“Are you kidding? Everyone in this goddamn school is pretty much-”

 

“Gabriel, _I had no friends_ before you dragged me into this!” Sam snapped, rubbing a hand over his face. “I ate my lunches alone and I went home as soon as the bell rang. I was that nerdy kid who everyone ignored. Don’t try and tell me I’m popular, don’t you dare.”

 

Gabriel laughed bitterly, but Sam plowed on before Gabriel could say anything.

 

“Second of all, you don’t get to tell me what I’m ‘trying to pull here’, ok?” Sam continued, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Ok, fine, maybe the kiss didn’t mean anything to you. If that’s how you really feel then I can accept that.” Sam said, biting his lower lip for a moment, clearly holding back some emotional response, and Gabriel felt himself soften slightly. “I can’t force you to feel a certain way. But you don’t get to tell me how I feel either.”

 

“I’m not telling you how you feel.” Gabriel grumbled, crossing his own arms over his chest.

 

“Well you’re sure as hell making a lot of assumptions about me!” Sam snapped, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. “So yeah, you’re pissed at me for some reason, and I have no idea why or what you want me to do to try and make it better, but all I’m going to say is that Friday night did mean something to me. I guess at the time I was stupid and thought it meant something to you too, but clearly I was wrong.”

 

Gabriel looked down at the floor, simmering in a mixture of anger and shame.

 

“It… Friday meant something to you?” Gabriel said hesitantly, the words feeling a little weird on his tongue. There was no way in hell that Sam was actually interested in him, no fucking way. This had to be some sort of mistake.

 

“Yeah, yeah it did.” Sam nodded., his tone angered and earnest all at once. “I like you, Gabriel. I have for a while now. Kind of figured that much was obvious.”

 

Gabriel was completely silent. He didn’t even dare breathe. Sam… Sam liked him? Fuck, fuck no, no that couldn't be right. Sam couldn’t… Sam wouldn’t…. How the hell could a guy like Sam be interested in him? This had to be some sort of mistake, there was no physical way in this universe that Sam Winchester could be interested in him.

 

“I…” Gabriel managed to get out, his heart pounding so hard in his chest he was worried it might break through his ribs.

 

“You don’t have to like me back.” Sam said quickly, but Gabriel shook his head, his face still blank with shock.

 

“So not the problem here...” Gabriel laughed breathlessly, unable to take his eyes off Sam as a grin slowly spread over his face. “You’re not just… just joking or something, right? Please tell me you’re not joking.”

 

“Not joking.” Sam promised, meeting Gabriel’s stare and giving him a small smile. Gabriel laughed a little breathlessly, running his hands through his hair, just to give himself some sort of movement he could do to work off some of this nervous energy he was suddenly overflowing with.

 

“So you mean you actually like me.” Gabriel said, his voice cracking slightly at the end. A grin was slowly spreading over his face, and Sam found himself grinning hesitantly back.

 

“Yeah, Gabe, I like you.” Sam nodded, taking a hesitant step towards Gabriel. “I have for ages.”

 

“And just to clarify this is like like, right? Not ‘I- want- to- sleep- with- you’ like.” Gabriel said, holding up his hands to make Sam pause in his advance.

 

“Well, I do want to sleep with you.” Sam admitted with a grin, rubbing the back of his neck. “But that’s kind of the smallest aspect of it. I like you, Gabriel, as in I want to date you.”

 

Gabriel felt a light blush spread over his face and he looked at the ground in an attempt to hide it.

 

"You want to date me." Gabriel said simply, and Sam laughed.

 

"Yeah, yeah I do." Sam smiled, reaching out and tentatively taking hold of Gabriel's hand. Sam's smile widened when Gabriel didn't pull his hand away, and he gave Gabriel's hand a little squeeze, causing Gabriel's heart to flutter in his chest.

 

"I don't get why you'd want to date me." Gabriel admitted, still looking at the floor. "I mean in case you haven't noticed I'm kind of an asshole."

 

"Oh, wow, huh, you're right. Thanks for letting me know, I hadn't noticed. Guess I should change my mind then." Sam said with a teasing grin and began to pull his hand away from Gabriel's, but Gabriel let out a huff of annoyance and smacked Sam's arm with his free hand.

 

"I'm serious!" Gabriel frowned, finally looking up at Sam, who grinned down at Gabriel, giving his hand a squeeze again.

 

"Ok, ok." Sam laughed, shaking his head. "So ok, maybe you're not perfect for everyone. But you are to me."

 

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at Sam.

 

"Don't pull that shit with me, Winchester. I'm not perfect in the slightest and you know it." Gabriel said sternly.

 

"So?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow back at Gabriel. "I don't want perfect. I want a guy who makes me laugh. A guy who acts like a bit of a dork, but who still knows how to be serious when the time is right. I want a guy who jokes around with me, but who isn't afraid to call me out on my shit when I mess up. I want a guy whose smile makes my heart do these stupidly cheesy, romance novel style flips in my chest, who lights up every single room he walks into, who has by far the most gorgeous eyes I've ever seen. A guy who is worth so much more than he thinks he is. A guy who puts up with me when I'm acting like an idiot, who helps me when I'm feeling sad, who makes me try new things... I want you, Gabe. It doesn’t matter whether you're perfect or not, you are everything I want, and if you don't want me that's fine but I can't pretend you're not what I want."

 

Gabriel could feel his face getting warmer and warmer with a pleased sort of embarrassment the more Sam went on, his eyes glued to the ground, and by the end of it he was certain that he was bright red.

 

"You really think that stuff about me?" He said hesitantly, biting his lip while he looked up at Sam.

 

Sam nodded. "Yeah, I do." He promised, rubbing his thumb over the back of Gabriel's hand.

 

"You do know how cheesy you sounded there, right?" Gabriel asked, laughing softly in an attempt to hold back the happy tears threatening to fall. He was not going to cry, fuck, he absolutely was not going to cry. Be cool, Gabriel, you're not going to spoil this moment by crying. Again.

 

"Ok, fine, maybe it was a bit cheesy." Sam admitted with a laugh. "So sue me, I'm a bit of a cheesy romantic."

 

Gabriel grinned up at Sam, biting his lower lip. "And there's really nothing going on between you and Jessica?"

 

"Jess and me?" Sam snorted, shaking his head. "Gabe, I already told you. I'm not actually interested in her." Sam promised, and Gabriel nodded. "Anyways, she's seeing Ruby apparently, so it doesn't matter."

 

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at Sam. “Ruby?” He said, more than a little surprised.

 

“Yeah, I know, I wasn’t expecting it either.” Sam admitted with a laugh.

 

“When did you find that out?” Gabriel asked, glancing down with a smile when Sam intertwined their fingers.

 

“Yesterday.” Sam said. “I was kind of freaking out about you not replying to me, so Jess came over to knock some sense into me.”

 

“You were freaking out?” Gabriel frowned, his stomach sinking with guilt.

 

“Yeah, I thought you might be mad at me, or that you were going to cut me out of your life for good." Sam admitted with a nervous smile, and Gabriel's gut twisted.

 

"I'm sorry." Gabriel mumbled, looking down at the floor. Damn it, of course ignoring Sam had hurt him. He had been so fucking stupid. Why the hell was he always running away from everything, all he was ever going to end up doing was hurt the people he cared about regardless of what he did.

 

"Hey, hey, it's ok!" Sam promised, giving Gabriel's hand a squeeze to try and make him look up. "It's fine, I promise. You were just freaked out."

 

"I still acted like an asshole." Gabriel muttered, letting go of Sam's hand to run his hand through his hair.

 

"I don't care." Sam insisted, pulling a sigh out of Gabriel.

 

"If you say so..." Gabriel said, clearly not fully believing Sam. Sam was silent for a moment, considering his options. A moment later he sighed, turning and walking away from Gabriel. Gabriel felt his heart sink. Fuck. God fucking damn it, he'd messed up again, and now Sam was going to leave and never talk to him again. Nice going, Gabriel. Nice.

 

"You know, I was planning on giving these to you after the show, but I think you need them now." Sam said, cutting through Gabriel's internal monologue. Sam made his way over to the cabinet at the back of the classroom, pulling it open. Ok, fine, so maybe he wasn't leaving after all, Gabriel admitted begrudgingly, standing awkwardly while he waited for Sam. Sam reached into the cabinet, pulling out a decent sized bouquet of flowers, maybe a dozen roses in the bouquet. He carried them over to Gabriel, thrusting the flowers into Gabriel's stunned hands. "I know the tradition is to give people flowers after a performance, but screw tradition." Sam laughed nervously, smiling down a little awkwardly at Gabriel.

 

"You got me flowers?" Gabriel said, his voice a little closer to a squeak than he would have liked, his eyes glued to the roses in his hands. “And his them in a cabinet?”

 

"Yeah...Do you like them?" Sam asked, and Gabriel could hear the tentative hope in his voice.

 

"Like them?" Gabriel repeated, tearing his eyes away from the bouquet so that he could look up at Sam, practically beaming. "Sammich, they're incredible!" He laughed, and Sam gave a relieved sigh.

 

"Oh thank god, I was worried it might be a little weird." Sam admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. Gabriel shook his head.

 

"I love them." Gabriel promised, grinning down at the flowers again. Sam had bought him flowers. Sam liked him, Sam wanted to be with him, and Sam had bought him flowers.

 

"I don't want to pressure you either way, and I'll be perfectly fine if you say no... but, I was kind of wondering if you would, you know... Go out with me?" Sam said, smiling hopefully down at Gabriel.

 

Gabriel's heart skipped a beat.

 

"As in... As in be your..." He said, his brain not functioning well enough to pull a full sentence together.

 

"My boyfriend?" Sam finished for him, and Gabriel nodded, clearing his throat.

 

"Yeah, yeah that." He nodded, trying to get his brain working again after the shock.

 

“Well yeah, that’s the best case scenario.” Sam nodded, biting his lip through a hopeful smile. “But if you don’t-”

 

“Yes.” Gabriel interrupted him, clutching the flowers to his chest.

 

“Yeah?” Sam said hesitantly, and Gabriel could see a spark lighting up behind Sam’s eyes. “You’ll go out with me?”

 

“Fuck, yes, yes of course I will!” Gabriel laughed, still a little in shock. All the tension flooded out of Sam’s shoulders and he reached out for Gabriel, trying to pull him into a hug, but Gabriel pulled away.

 

“Careful!” He warned him, bringing up one of his hands to shield the roses. “You’ll crush the flowers.”

 

“Right, sorry.” Sam laughed. Gabriel set the flowers down on one of the desks

 

“Now you can kiss me.” Gabriel said, looking at Sam expectantly. Sam’s cheeks turned a light pink.

 

“I was just going to hug you.” Sam admitted, taking a tiny step towards Gabriel.

 

“Yeah, well now you’re going to kiss me.” Gabriel said with a grin, putting his hands on his hips.

 

“Oh am I?” Sam snorted, shaking his head.

 

“Yep, you are.” Gabriel nodded, and Sam laughed, rolling his eyes.

 

“Damn, my boyfriend sure is a needy bastard.” Sam teased, pulling a huge grin out of Gabriel.

 

“Say that again.” Gabriel ordered, taking a step closer so that there was only an inch of space between them. Sam raised an eyebrow.

 

“Say what again?”

 

“My boyfriend.” Gabriel grinned, bringing Sam’s blush back.

 

“You like it when I call you my boyfriend?” Sam laughed, wrapping his arms loosely around Gabriel’s waist.

 

“Oh yeah.” Gabriel nodded, looping his arms around Sam’s neck and tangling his hands loosely in Sam’s hair.

 

“Well that’s probably a good thing.” Sam teased, leaning down so that their lips were barely an inch apart. “Seeing as you _are_ my boyfriend.”

 

Gabriel could feel Sam’s breath ghosting against his lips, and it sent a shiver down his spine.

 

“Then maybe you should kiss me.” Gabriel murmured, his eyes falling halfway shut as he leaned in a fraction of an inch closer to Sam, still leaving a tiny bit of space between them.

 

“Yes sir.” Sam chuckled, dipping his head down to kiss Gabriel

 

“Sorry to ruin the moment, but the top of the show starts in half an hour and you two need to get in costume ASAP.” A voice cut through the moment just before their lips touched. Gabriel and Sam quickly sprang apart, matching shades of red. Charlie was standing in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest and a huge grin on her face.

 

“Wow Char, thanks for the cockblock. Really feeling the love here.” Gabriel grumbled, rolling his eyes at Charlie.

 

“Sorry bucko, I’ve got a show to run.” She laughed, and Gabriel flipped her off. “Sam, by the way, your guy’s here.” She added, completely ignoring Gabriel.

 

“Shit, he is?” Sam said, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing over at Gabriel.

 

“Yeah, he just showed up. He’s outside with Chuck right now, I don’t know where he’s going to sit.” Charlie explained. Gabriel frowned, looking between the two of them.

 

“Who’s here?” He asked, confused.

 

“The Tisch guy?” Charlie explained, ignoring Sam’s frantic gestures to try and get her to shut up.

 

“What?!” Gabriel squeaked, his eyebrows skyrocketing. “He’s _here_?! Why the hell is he here?!”

 

“I wasn’t going to tell him!” Sam groanedat Charlie, who winced.

 

“Sorry?” She said with an apologetic smile.

 

“Oh, you weren’t going to tell me that the guy responsible for my entire future showed up to the show tonight?” Gabriel scoffed, doing his best to stop himself from panicking, but it wasn’t quite working.

 

“I knew if you knew he was here that you would freak out!” Sam said, holding up his hands defensively.

 

“Yeah, well, you’re right, I’m freaking out!” Gabriel snapped, running both his hands through his hair. He tried taking a few deep breaths, managing to bring himself slightly more under control. “So why exactly is he here?”

 

“I invited him.” Sam explained, earning him a glare from Gabriel. “I figured I should do something for you to prove that I cared about you, so I called Chuck and asked him if he had any idea how we could fix what happened at the review. Apparently Chuck knows the head of admissions at the school, so Chuck called him and convinced him to give you another shot by watching the show.”

 

Gabriel just stood there for a moment, trying to digest everything he had just heard.

 

“So what you’re trying to tell me” Gabriel began, doing his best to stay calm, “is that not only is this opening night for a show we’re barely prepared to put up, but my entire future rests on how well I do tonight?”

 

“No pressure?” Sam said hopefully, earning him a frustrated groan from Gabriel.

 

“Look, you’ll do fine.” Charlie insisted, rolling her eyes at the two of them. “Just get in costume and then get on stage for warm ups.”

 

“If I screw this up I am going to kill you.” Gabriel growled at Sam as Charlie slipped out of the room. He stalked over to the table that he had set his costume down on. “Come on, we need to get ready. Apparently this is the most important night of my career.”

 

\- - - - -

 

Sam crept onto the stage, doing his best to make it seem like he was weightless yet strong at the same time. Oberon, he reminded himself as he came up beside Jessica, who was pretending to sleep on a chaise that had been covered with fabric to make it seem like it was made of leaves. He twirled the purple flower he was holding in his hand, coming up to stand behind Jessica.

 

“What thou seest when thou dost wake, do it for thy true love take." Sam said softly, though still loud enough that the audience would be able to hear him. He brushed a strand of hair out of Jessica's face, the gesture staying soft and tender, but a smirk remained fixed on his face. He gently brushed the flower over her closed eyes, giving an internal sigh of relief when the sound cue, a soft, melodic yet eerie hum, started up perfectly on time.

 

"Love and languish for his sake." Sam continued, trailing the flower down Jessica's cheek, running it softly down her neck and to her chest before returning it to her eyes. "Be it ounce or cat or bear, pard or boar with bristled hair!" Sam said, laughing softly at the idea of Jessica mooning over a boar. He stood up, taking a small step back from her. "In thy eye that shall appear, when thou wakest, it is thy dear." Sam slipped the flower into his hair, tucking it behind his ear. The lights had slowly been shifting from a normal, uncoloured wash, to a purple one as the scene progressed, and the humming got louder and louder. Sam stepped behind the chaise, looming over Jessica. He was silent for a moment, simply observing her, before he leaned down as if to kiss her, but paused at the last moment and moved his lips to Jessica's ear, feeling her hair tickle his lips. "Wake when some vile thing is near." He said coldly, keeping his voice at a normal stage volume inspite of his proximity to her ear. Jessica, remained unresponsive, and as soon as Sam had finished his line he snapped. The lights returned to normal and the humming abruptly stopped. Sam quickly and quietly made his way off stage, making it off just before Lysander and Hermia entered.

 

He gave a small sigh of relief as soon as he was completely off stage, letting his posture return to his normal one, all the tension flooding out of his shoulders. That was one of the more tech intensive scenes, and required the sound and light crew to be really on top of things. It had taken them ages to get it right in the tech rehearsal where they worked on perfecting the light and sound cues for the show, but thankfully it had gone off without a hitch this time. Maybe the tech kids were just as nervous as he was.

 

Things were actually going better than he had expected. So far there had been no major mess ups. Admittedly he had screwed up one of his lines, but it hadn't been an important one, and he'd made a smooth enough recovery that it wouldn't have been extremely noticeable anyways. Sam wove his way through the backstage area, the wing, Gabriel had told him it was called, making his way to a place where he could be out of the way until his next scene. Backstage was completely silent, any noise they made back here would be able to be heard on stage, but it was still buzzing with activity. It was fairly dark, the only light coming from a few black lights and some glowtape to mark out the hazards. There were three kids huddled under one of the blacklights, frantically reviewing their lines with some of the most intense looks of concentration that Sam had ever seen. Sam made his way through the crossover, a passage that ran along behind the stage, hidden from view of the audience by a large curtain. Once he was on the other side he caught sight of Gabriel, and went to stand next to him.

 

“Hey.” He whispered under his breath, and Gabriel nodded in greeting.

 

"Hey." He murmured back. His arms were crossed over his chest, his shoulders tense with nerves.

 

"Have you seen the guy from Tisch yet?" Sam asked.

 

"Yeah." Gabriel said, fiddling with a button on his vest. His costume was fairly impressive in Sam's opinion. Gabriel was wearing a pair of deep green harem pants that hung low on his hips and a dark brown vest. There were fake leaves sewn into the vest, completely covering his shoulders, but getting sparser and sparser the further down Gabriel's chest they went so that the red, orange, and yellow leaves faded into the brown of the vest. Gabriel's hair had been messed up in such a way that it looked like he'd either been running through bushes for hours or he'd just come out of a heavy makeout session, but the tiny green leaves stuck into it made it lean a little more towards the first one. Gabriel was wearing a pair of pointy elf ears, and his makeup was a little eerie. Gabriel had put on a foundation about a shade or so paler than his correct shade, making him look pale, and he had heavy contouring. His eyes were harshly defined with red, brown, and gold eyeshadow extending out to the edges of his face and a ring of black eyeliner circling his eyes. Some sort of shimmering powder had been applied to all of the fairies, making them glimmer under the stage lights. To top it all off Gabriel was barefoot, allowing him to climb the ropes without worrying about shoes getting in the way. Gabriel was currently worrying his lower lip between his teeth, making them a bitten shade of red that Sam did his best not to get distracted by.

 

"Where is he sitting?" Sam asked, peeking out past one of the curtains to see onstage. "I'll keep my eye out for him."

 

"Two rows back, sitting in the centre of the row." Gabriel said, his words coming out a little curt with his nerves. "He's wearing all black."

 

"Really?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. "Isn't that kind of pretentious?"

 

"He's the head of admittance for one of the top drama schools in the country. The guy can afford to be a little pretentious." Gabriel whispered back hurriedly, watching the actors stumble around on stage.

 

"I guess." Sam shrugged. "So, have you gotten any reactions out of the Man In Black yet?"

 

Gabriel shook his head. "No, his face has been blank the entire fucking time. I can't read him at all."

 

"Sam, Gabe, quiet down. They're going to hear you in the audience." Charlie hissed at them.

 

"Sorry!" Sam whispered apologetically before turning back to Gabriel .

 

"Well trust me, you've been doing great." Sam murmured softly, and Gabriel's lips pinched into a tight line "Yes, you have." Sam insisted.

 

"I've done ok, but not great." Gabriel shook his head again, fiddling with one of the leaves on his vest.

 

"Are you kidding? The audience loves you! There's a guy who hoots every time you come on stage."

 

"So?"

 

"Guys, seriously, shut up." Charlie snapped, suddenly right behind him and Sam barely stopped himself from jumping about a foot into the air.

 

"Sorry!" Sam said again.

 

"Shit, that's my cue." Gabriel winced, dashing out onto the stage and beginning to slink about through the fake trees, watching the other actors on stage.

 

"Seriously Sam, if Chuck yells at me after the show because he could hear you guys talking I'll skin you alive." Charlie warned, pointing the walkie talkie she used to communicate with the tech booth at Sam.

 

"I know, I know, I'm sorry." Sam whispered with an apologetic smile.

 

"Flirt with you boyfriend after the show." Charlie said before walking off, leaving Sam smiling at his feet. Right, Gabriel was his boyfriend. Gabriel was his actual, honest-to-god boyfriend. He settled back to watch Gabriel perform.

 

"Through the forest have I gone. But Athenian found I none, on whose eyes I might approve this flower’s force in stirring love!" Gabriel grumbled on stage, kicking at a fake rock before nearly tripping over Victor, doing a double take at the actor on the ground. The audience laughed and Sam found himself chuckling quietly with them as well, shaking his head at Gabriel, who was poking Victor's face with his foot. Yeah, the Man In Black was going to be impressed.

 

The show sped past quickly, the cast still managing to avoid making any major screw ups. The tech was running smoothly as well, and this almost seemed a little too good to be true. Yes, there were a few blocking issues, and once or twice people almost couldn’t find their props, but in the end everything seemed to keep going without too many problems. There was a sudden rush of noise from the crowd as soon as the curtain closed for the intermission, but Sam wasn’t able to make out any of the things people were saying. It was a little nerve wracking, knowing that people were just on the other side of the curtain and talking about how he’d done. Backstage swelled with sound as well as people scrambled around to get ready for the next scenes. Sam managed to find Gabriel, smiling sadly at Gabriel who was currently leaning his forehead against the cool brick wall that had been painted black.

 

“How are you feeling?” Sam asked, coming up to stand next to Gabriel. Gabriel made a sound that started off as a groan, but turned into a whine as it petered off. “That well, huh?”

 

Gabriel let out another groan, turning in place so that he could rest his head against Sam’s shoulder instead of the wall. Sam tried to wrap his arms around Gabriel, but Gabriel groaned once again, pulling away from Sam.

 

“No hugs.” He said, shaking his head tiredly. “You’ll mess up my makeup.”

 

“Right, sorry.” Sam said with an apologetic smile.

 

“How do you think it’s going?” Gabriel asked, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

 

“Honestly?” Sam said, leaning against the wall as well. “I think it’s going incredibly. Don’t you?”

 

Gabriel shrugged, tipping his head back with a sigh.

 

"It's going alright." Gabriel said dully, his face blank. "Some of the entrances were a bit late, and Jess skipped like four lines in one of her monologues."

 

"Really?" Sam asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "I honestly didn't notice."

 

"She covered it up pretty well." Gabriel admitted, picking at a speck of glitter on his arm. "And I'm not really doing as good as I could be."

 

"Oh come on, you're doing great!" Sam laughed. When Gabriel didn't laugh along with him his smile slid down into a frown and he looked over at Gabriel. "Wait, you really think you're not doing well?"

 

Gabriel shrugged.

 

"Yeah, I mean some of my lines are coming out a bit forced." Gabriel said, looking blankly out in front of him.

 

"You're just a little tense." Sam insisted, shaking his head. "All you need to do is relax a little bit and you'll be fine.'

 

Gabriel snorted at that, turning his head so that he could look at Sam.

 

"Oh, yeah, right. Silly me, all I need to do is relax and ignore the fact that a guy who could shape my entire future sits in the audience." Gabriel scoffed, rolling his eyes at Sam. "Great advice, kiddo, thanks a bunch."

 

"Gabe, it's not as bad as you think it is." Sam promised him, setting a hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "It's not that big of a deal."

 

"Sambo, imagine that one of the people from Stanford was sitting out there right now and deciding whether or not to let you in based on how well you did tonight. If that was what decided whether or not you got into Stanford, do you honestly expect me to believe you wouldn't be 'just a little tense'?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow at him. Sam was suddenly struck with the mental image of some stuffy old lawyer wearing Garth's Donkey head and he barely managed to hold back a laugh.

 

"Ok, ok, I see your point." He admitted. "But Gabriel I promise you're doing really well. Just take some deep breaths, ok?"

 

Gabriel took an exaggerated breath in, wheezing. He stood up on his tiptoes, leaning close to Sam's face, and let out the breath in one long raspberry. Sam flinched, taking a step away from Gabriel.

 

"Gross, Gabe." Sam groaned, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. A droplet of spit had landed on his face and he dabbed it away with his hand, not wanting to mess up his makeup or his costume. His own makeup wasn't quite as extravagant as Gabriel's, he's just been paled a little bit, given some contouring, a bit of lipstick that was a few shades darker than his lips, and some eyeliner to make his eyes stand out. However he still knew that the girl in charge of makeup would kill him if he messed it up. "Thanks a lot for that." He sighed, opening his eyes again and looking down at Gabriel, who was smirking.

 

"Any time." Gabriel teased. "Always happy to please."

 

"Yeah, sure you are." Sam scoffed, rolling his eyes. Well, at the very least Gabriel seemed to have relaxed ever so slightly. He leaned down towards Gabriel, trying to go in for a kiss, but Gabriel put his hand in between them to stop Sam.

 

“Nope, you’re wearing lipstick, you don’t get to mess up our makeup.” Gabriel reminded him, and Sam groaned, stepping back from Gabriel.

 

"You know if I get to kiss you at all tonight it's going to be a miracle." Sam chuckled, and Gabriel grinned at him.

 

"Leave 'em wanting more, that's my motto." Gabriel laughed, and Sam grinned back.

 

"I thought it was 'make as many dirty jokes as physically possible'." Sam teased, nudging Gabriel with his shoulder.

 

"Nah, that's just part of my manifesto." Gabriel smiled up at Sam, who wrapped an arm around Gabriel's shoulder.

 

"Intermission's going to end soon." Gabriel reminded him, looking up at Sam.

 

"Right." Sam nodded. "You ready to get on stage again?"

 

"Always." Gabriel smiled warmly at Sam, leaning his head against Sam's shoulder for a moment. "You should get onstage." He said, wrapping his arms around Sam's waist.

 

"I probably should." Sam agreed. "But my boyfriend seems to have turned into a barnacle."

 

"Sounds like a pretty rough situation." Gabriel hummed sympathetically, not letting go of Sam.

 

Sam was silent for a moment, smiling down at Gabriel. He heard Charlie calling around that the interview was about to end, so he gave Gabriel a small smile. "I really should get on stage, Gabe."

 

Gabriel let out a small annoyed whine, but he let Sam pry his arms off of him.

 

"Break some hearts, kiddo." Gabriel called out to him as Sam made his way onto the stage. Sam frowned at him in confusion.

 

"Isn't it ‘break a leg’?"

 

"Hey!" Gabriel warned, raising an eyebrow at Sam. "Who's the theatre expert here?"

 

Sam laughed, shaking his head at Gabriel as he leaned up against one of the fake trees.

 

"Curtain rising!" Charlie called out to the cast, and as soon as everyone but Sam was offstage she gestured for one of the stage hands to open the curtain. Sam quickly slipped back into his Oberon mindset, looking lazily off into space. The audience quieted down as soon as the curtain started to move, and Sam waited for them to open fully before saying his line.

 

"I wonder if Titania be awaked. Then, what it was that next came in her eye, which she must dote on in extremity." Sam mused, watching as Gabriel crawled along the walkway they had built across the tops of the trees. Gabriel hooked his legs around a bar they had set up to look like a tree branch, flipping over so that he was hanging upsidedown by his knees.

 

"Here comes my messenger." Sam chuckled, shaking his head at Gabriel. "How now, mad spirit? What night-rule now about this haunted grove?"

 

Gabriel twisted himself about so that he was holding onto the bar with his hands and gripping it between his knees, looking at Sam upside down.

 

“My mistress with a monster is in love!” Gabriel cackled, flipping over and jumping down. He hit the floor with barely any noise at all, remarkably light on his feet. Sam grinned, leaning towards Gabriel to listen to what he had to say.

 

“Near to her close and consecrated bower, while she was in her dull and sleeping hour, a crew of patches, rude mechanicals that work for bread upon Athenian stalls, were met together to rehearse a play intended for great Theseus' nuptial day.” Gabriel continued, acting out what he was saying. Sam began to zone out a little bit, watching Gabriel go through the monologue. When he’d first read through the script he’d found this monologue incredibly boring, and, if he was being honest, a little pointless. All Puck was doing was telling a story that the audience had already seen, but for the benefit of Sam they had to hear it all again. But Gabriel had a way of performing it in a way that actually made it interesting, something Sam was never going to get over. It was a little ridiculous how good at this Gabriel was, Sam mused to himself as the audience laughed at a particularly funny imitation Gabriel did, and Sam chuckled along with them, a grin on his face. Gabriel was amazing.

 

Shit, he remembered, adding a little bit of darkness to his grin, trying to make it halfway between a grin and a smirk. Right, he was supposed to be in character. Puck was amazing, not Gabriel. He forced himself to think Oberon’s thoughts like Gabriel had taught him, sinking back into character. Yes, Puck could be a bother sometimes, but he really was invaluable at times like this. While he had other attendants who were more obedient, who caused less trouble, Puck always came through when Oberon needed him to. And with a hell of a lot more creativity than most fairies would. He let himself get more and more enthralled with Gabriel’s story, listening and laughing as Gabriel described how he had found some actors rehearsing in the woods near where Titania slept. Gabriel had picked out Bottom, played by Garth, and used his magic to give Bottom a donkey head. Sam had already used the juice of the magic flower to make sure that Titania would fall in love with the first thing she saw when she woke up, so all Gabriel needed to do was make sure that Bottom was there when Titania woke up. From what he’d heard from the story so far that was exactly what Gabriel had tried to do, and Sam couldn’t keep the grin off of his face.

 

“When in that moment so it came to pass,” Gabriel continued, standing next to Sam with his arms spread wide, “Titania waked and straightway loved… an ass!” Gabriel finished with a cackle, giving a bow. Sam laughed, a sudden rush of affection surging through him. Gabriel had done it.

 

“This falls out better than I could devise!” Sam crowed, taking a few steps back from Gabriel as he laughed along with him. Without thinking he suddenly surged forwards, wrapping one arm around Gabriel’s waist and kissing him hard. There was a roar of cheers from the crowd, and Gabriel stiffened, taken by surprised. Sam couldn’t quite bring himself to pull away, but within a moment Gabriel had regained his senses and he kissed Sam back, tipping himself backwards and dragging Sam down with him so that Gabriel was being dipped. Sam brought his other arm around to Gabriel’s back to support him, and without warning Gabriel lifted one of his legs into the air, one of his arms wrapped around Sam’s back to hold him in the kiss. Sam chuckled into the kiss as Gabriel suddenly lifted both of his legs off the floor, raising them high in the air so that Sam was forced to support him. Sam’s arms strained with the effort and Gabriel started to kick his legs, which didn’t really help, but he didn’t break the kiss or let go of Gabriel. The audience cheer and roar with laughter, and Sam grinned against Gabriel’s lips.

 

Eventually the kiss needed to end, but before Sam could pull away or set him down Gabriel pulled back, flopping down so that he was upside down, still being held up by Sam with his legs in the air. Sam barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes, but he was unable to get rid of his huge smile as he looked down at Gabriel.

 

Sam waited for the audience to quiet down before continuing, allowing himself to glance out at them. He quickly saw the Man in Black, whose face was blank and unreadable, but he was still applauding quietly underneath the cheers.

 

Once the audience had quieted down a bit Sam continued along with his lines.

 

“But hast thou yet latched the Athenian’s eyes with the love juice, as I did bid thee do?” He asked Gabriel, who was still hanging off of him.

 

“I took him sleeping—that is finished too— and the Athenian woman by his side, that, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.” Gabriel replied. The kids playing Demetrius and Hermia walked on stage, and Sam quickly righted Gabriel and set him down on the floor.

 

“Stand close. This is the same Athenian.” He said to Gabriel, who frowned.

 

“This is the woman, but not this the man.” Gabriel said, shaking his head. The two of them watched as Hermia and Demetrius argued with each other. Sam could feel Gabriel’s arm touching his as the two of them hid in the shadows, and he had to bite the inside of his lip to stop himself from smiling. Yeah, he was a pretty lucky guy.

 

\- - - - -

 

The next few scenes were a whirlwind. Gabriel wasn’t able to find a single moment where both he and Sam were backstage together for more that a second. His heart was still pounding in his chest, both from the kiss and from the adrenaline of being onstage. The fact that Sam had actually kissed him on stage like that was still a little surreal, but right now Gabriel just felt giddy. Sam had kissed him, Sam was his boyfriend, and the show was going well. Really well, if he was being honest with himself, especially since it was only opening night. Backstage was a little calmer now, most of them had been able to work off their nerves, and even Gabriel wasn’t worrying quite so much. Who knew having the shit kissed out of him on stage could have such a calming effect?

 

In the back of his mind though he still couldn’t stop thinking about the Man In Black. By the way, he added to himself, he’d officially nabbed himself a boyfriend who made _Princess Bride_ references. Fucking score! Maybe he could see about renting a horse so that they could ride off into the sunset together. If he ended up surviving tonight, that is.

 

Alright, so maybe he was still a little nervous. He had a right to be, there was a hell of a lot riding on tonight. He couldn’t afford to mess this up. Not a second time. Hell, maybe it would have been better if Sam hadn’t invited the guy in the first place. Gabriel sighed, plopping down on the floor next to the blacklight. He only had one scene left, but it was his monologue to end the show and he’d been having a bit of difficulties memorizing it. It was these two lines, he always messed them up. Gabriel ran the lines over in his head, glancing up when Sam came down to sit beside him.

 

“Hey.” Sam smiled, and in spite of his nerves Gabriel found him smiling back. Stupid bastard, why did he have such a nice smile? Stupid gorgeous bastard.

 

“Hey.” Gabriel mumbled back. “So, that kiss huh?”

 

“Right, that.” Sam said, a tiny blush peeking out from beneath his stage makeup. “Sorry about that, it was a heat of the moment sort of thing.”

 

“Yeah, we seem to be good at kissing eachother without planning on kissing eachother.” Gabriel chuckled, leaning his head on Sam’s shoulder. Sam wrapped an arm around Gabriel’s shoulders, holding him loosely.

 

“We do.” Sam admitted with a smile.

 

“I mean, there was that time when I kissed you on a dare at the party.” Gabriel said with a small smile.

 

“And that time I kissed you when super drunk, also at the party.” Sam pointed out.

 

“And kissed me and kissed me and kissed me and-”

 

“Hey,” Sam interrupted “At least half of those were your fault.”

 

“Alright, fine, maybe half of them.” Gabriel grinned, and Sam couldn’t resist kissing the top of his head.

 

“Well hopefully I’ll get to kiss you on purpose sometime soon.” Sam chuckled. Gabriel smiled softly down at his lap.

 

“Pretty sure you will, kiddo.” He murmured, resting his head on Sam’s shoulder. The two of them were silent for a moment, until Sam sighed.

 

“We should get back on stage.” Sam mumbled into Gabriel’s hair. Gabriel groaned softly.

 

“Do I have to?” He whined. Sam laughed, shaking his head.

 

“Wow, I never would have thought I’d be the one forcing you to get onstage.” Sam teased. Gabriel shrugged.

 

“M’comfy.” Gabriel grumbled into Sam’s shoulder.

 

Sam sighed, standing up and dragging Gabriel with him. Gabriel let out a groan of irritation but he stood up.

 

“Ugh, fine.” He sighed, trudging over towards the place he entered from.

 

“Hey Gabe?” Sam called, making sure to stay quiet enough so that the audience wouldn’t hear him.

 

“Yeah?” Gabriel asked, turning back to face Sam.

 

“Think I’ll get that on purpose kiss after the show?” Sam asked, smiling almost shyly at Gabriel.

 

Gabriel bit his lower lip through a grin.

 

“Maybe.” He shrugged nonchalantly before walking on stage. Sam shook his head, laughing softly as he walked over to find Jessica for their entrance.

 

\- - - - -

“So good night unto you all. Give me your hands if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends.” Gabriel finished, spreading his arms open wide to the audience. As soon as his arms were fully said all the lights went dark, and the audience burst into applause.

 

Gabriel ran off stage before the lights came up, and Charlie ushered the cast members onstage for their bows.

 

“Alright, Players first! Then once they’re off I want the fairy handmaidens, then the parents, Hippolyta, and Theseus, then the four lovers, then Titania and Oberon, and then Puck.” She read off the list that chuck had given her, waiving each group on stage one at a time. Sam gave Gabriel’s shoulder a quick squeeze as he ran past him with Jessica to do his bow.

 

“You did great.” He said to Gabriel with a grin before running on stage, bowing with Jessica.

 

Gabriel ran out as soon Sam was offstage, and when he ran out to center stage alone and spread his arms wide again the crowd gradually got to its feet, applauding wildly. Gabriel grinned, bowing low. He couldn’t stop himself from laughing as he straightened up, giving the crowd a small wave as he ran back off the stage.

 

Gabriel was giddy. As in how-the-fuck-are-my-feet-touching-the-ground giddy. Not only had he rocked his monologue, oh no. He’d gotten a standing ovation. For the first time in his goddamn life he’d gotten a standing ovation. If he was the type he probably would have cried. He slipped backstage, watching as the main drape slid closed, hearing the rumble of the crowd as they started to leave. Almost immediately the backstage area erupted into cheers, the whole cast jumping around and hugging eachother, a wave of relief flooding through them all now that they’d officially performed the play. No one cared about the other four nights they were running the show, they’d done it once so they could do it again. Even Chuck seemed to be feeling a sense of relief, seeing as he was currently slumped against a wall, the hugest grin spreading over his face as tears started to fall, his entire body shaking with giddy laughter.

 

Gabriel made his way through the wings, searching for Sam. His boyfriend. God, he was never going to get tired of calling Sam that. He could feel himself grinning as he ran through the crossover to the other side of the stage, narrowly avoiding running into his castmates. But he caught sight of Sam at the other end of the crossover and his grin widened, picking up into a sprint as he ran full force at Sam, who noticed Gabriel barely a moment before he had an armful of the shorter boy.

 

“Hey Gabe.” Sam chuckled, hugging Gabriel back tightly.

 

“We did it!” Gabriel all but shouted, grinning up at Sam who nodded, kissing the top of Gabriel’s head.

 

“We did it.” Sam repeated. On a whim he gripped Gabriel by the waist, picking him up and spinning them around in a circle. Gabriel laughed, pressing his forehead against Sam’s as he was lowered back down.

 

“Uh, Gabriel?” Chuck said from behind him, and Gabriel pulled away from Sam to look at their director, who gestured towards the stage. “There’s someone here who wants to talk to you.”

 

Gabriel frowned, looking over to where Chuck was pointing.

 

It was the Man In Black.

 

Gabriel felt his throat go dry, but Sam gave his shoulder an encouraging squeeze before pushing Gabriel gently towards the stage.

 

It felt like it took years for Gabriel to make his way to downstage centre where the man in black was standing, his gaunt, pale face looking even more angular under the overhead stage lights. The man was standing with his back to Gabriel, examining a set piece that hadn’t been taken off stage yet. Gabriel cleared his throat, and the man turned around to face him, his expression unreadable.

 

“Ch-uh, Mr. Shurley told me you wanted to talk to me?” Gabriel said, trying his best to stop wishing that he could sink into the floor.

 

“You need to work on matching the energy levels of those around you.” The Man In Black said simply, and Gabriel frowned.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Your energy levels. If your scene partners are coming at the scene with a mid to low energy level and you approach every scene with a high energy level then it weakens the realism somewhat. The atmosphere of a scene is extremely important.” The Man In Black continued, his face still unreadable.

 

“Oh.” Gabriel said simply, his heart sinking into his stomach.

 

“But.” He added, holding up a hand to silence Gabriel. “The connections you are able to make with the audience are exemplary, your physicality is precise, fluid, and always make it entirely clear what you are trying to convey, and aside from a few questionable choices,” The Man paused, giving a tiny grimace, “Your line delivery is fairly good.”

 

Gabriel nodded, not even daring to breath.

 

“I make no promises, and let it be known that I do not take connections into account when I decide who Tisch lets into their drama program.” The Man In Black went on. “But what I can say is that you gave quite a memorable performance there, Mr. Novak, which I’m sure will stay with me when I’m making decisions about who we let into next year’s cohort.”

 

Gabriel was fairly certain that his heart had stopped, but a huge grin slowly spread across his face and he nodded, watching as the Man In Black gave the set piece he had been inspecting earlier one last glance before making his way towards the exit.

 

“Hey, wait!” Gabriel called out to him, something suddenly dawning on him. The man in black turned around, raising an eyebrow at Gabriel. “I thought Tisch was only doing auditions on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It’s monday night, shouldn’t you be back in New York by now?”

 

“I suppose I wanted to stay for an extra night.” The Man In Black said with a minuscule shrug. “I like the pizza.”

 

And with that the Man In Black turned, pushing a curtain aside as he walked off the stage.

 

Gabriel could feel his face splitting into a giant grin as he turned to face Sam, who was standing in one of the wings listening to everything that had been said. His grin mirrored Gabriel’s, and with a whoop of glee Gabriel took off at a run, jumping up and wrapping his legs around Sam’s waist as he pulled Sam’s lips to his for a searing kiss. Sam kissed Gabriel back deeply, placing his hands on Gabriel’s hips to help keep him up, the chorus of “Ewww”s from their castmates slowly fading into the background.

 

Yeah, Sam thought, maybe this whole “school play” thing had been a good idea after all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Did I make any mistakes? Find any typos? Like it? Love it? Did It leave you crying for hours on end? Let me know!
> 
> Where you can find us:  
> Me - gabrielsfeatherybutt.tumblr.com  
> Aria - aria-lerendeair.tumblr.com  
> Why-not-sabriel - why-not-sabriel.tumblr.com  
> Alicedeluca - alicedeluca.tumblr.com  
> buttsp8jr - ancientgabriel.tumblr.com


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